On Thursday night, my cousin, the infamous Jessica from Smart Nutrition, came over to make corn tortillas with me for our families. She has spent time in Guatemala and was craving genuine corn tortillas, and since it’s a good GF option and she knows I love to cook, it was a win-win to do it together. Much fun. No pictures. Well, unless you count pictures of her adorable son dancing while riding Jack, but that’s a blurry one because those two move too much for any sort of nice clear picture of their adorableness. All that to say, the boys were a little jealous of us cooking together so they decided that Friday night was their turn. Luke took out a couple of cookbooks from the school library and has been pouring over them all week. Together with Sam they came up with a plan for an appetizer, salad, main course and dessert. There was very little parental intervention, and I got promoted to dishwasher for most of the time. I figured if I could keep on top of their messes, my stress level would be moderate and I could try to actually enjoy the process a little. It’s tough having too many cooks in the kitchen and I’m sure I was one too many at times. But we all survived, through the joys and tears, and what resulted was a very edible, well presented meal. Way to go boys.
Their menu was:
Appetizer: Devilled eggs
Salad: Spinach with balsamic vinegrette
Main course: beef and lentil samosas
Dessert: Chocolate peanut butter bars
Interview with the chefs:
Me: How did you decide on your menu?
Luke: I just looked through the recipe book and found what I liked. Actually, we voted for some stuff. Like the dessert we voted on. Well, that’s not exactly true, we voted but then we changed our mind.
Sam: Um…I looked for something appetizing and then I asked if they wanted it.
Me: What parts of cooking a meal did you find the most enjoyable?
Sam: Putting the melted chocolate and peanut butter on the bars that we made.
Luke: The devilled eggs.
Me: What parts were frustrating or difficult?
Luke: The eggs because some of them broke. And the samosas because it took a long time and I was hungry.
Sam: Waiting for the dough to get out of the oven for the dessert.
Me: Out of all the recipes you tried, which ones would you do again? Which ones would you do differently?
Sam: The dessert I would DEFINITELY do again. But next time that I make the samosas we should actually use egg roll wraps. (We used rice paper wraps and didn’t quite do it right.)
Luke: Um, the salad I would do differently. I would put less balsamic vinegar. And the devilled eggs I would do again because they were fun and they tasted good.
Me: Was the process of making a meal from start to finish harder or easier than you expected? Why?
Luke: Harder because it was tiring and it took long.
Anna: And we didn’t eat when we were supposed to eat! (There may have been a moment when I was sure we had rice paper wraps and didn’t and I had to go to the store. Which was a good thing because I needed a moment. Cooking with multiple chefs = intense)
Sam: It was a bit harder than I expected. Like, harder to wait and a bit harder to go back and forth between looking at the recipe book.
Me: Did anything unexpected happen when you were cooking?
Sam: It turned out right!
Luke: Yeah. We didn’t have rice wraps.
Me: Are you glad you cooked for our family? Would you do it again?
Luke: Sure but no, I don’t want to do it again. I might do one course but I don’t want to do a whole meal again. It was too stressful. Maybe when I’m older.
Sam: Yes I’m glad I cooked for the family because I got to do the dessert. And that it tasted good.
Highlights for me were when Luke actually acknowledged that my method for peeling the eggs worked. I often hear “I know how to do this mom!” or “I don’t need help!” so it does feel good to have positive help acknowledged once in a while! Also, I think it was Sam that said, “How do you do this every day? And it doesn’t take you as long!” We ate around 7pm and they started cooking around 4pm. By the time we actually ate they were kind of cranky. Next time – one course! But, it was great to see their enthusiasm and also their competence with a lot of it. Way to go boys! I’m proud of you!
Today 