kids cook night

Kids Cook Night.  Why did I not think of this before?  As a mom that gets dinner on the table night after night- sometimes I need a break. Many years ago I asked for a Husband Cook Night. He’s a great cook and readily agreed. He usually cooks Saturday night and it very often involves the barbecue. The Husband tends to make the types of dinners that I rarely do: meat, potato, vegetable. We call them triangle dinners (because, you know, they form a triangle on your plate). A day off of cooking on the weekend for me, awesome.

Ever since Boy 1 started Boy Scouts and has to completely cook for himself on campouts, he has aspired to cook things more complicated than, say, ramen.  This has led to the hit of the summer (at least for me): Kids Cook Night.

Every Sunday (see how I did that- a whole weekend off of cooking!) one kid is the head chef, setting the menu and generally bossing the other two around.  This changes every week, so they better not be too bossy.  They kids are learning great cooking skills, cooperation, and how hard it is to make something that everyone likes. They started with some old favorites, pasta with red sauce, hamburgers, mac and cheese. I am hoping to move them toward finding new recipes soon. And in response to the dreaded question, “Is there any dessert tonight?” I can answer, “I don’t know, did you make one?”. The answer, of course, is almost always, “Yes!”

Though it makes me sad to think about it, I’m training them to leave home some day. With the Girl in 8th grade this year, the reality of this is starting to hit home. All the kids have chores, rotating every once in a while, so that they are all trained on setting tables, drying dishes, scrubbing toilets and showers, etc. Cooking their own dinners from beginning to end seems like the obvious next step.

Next up: laundry. I am slowly and steadily working myself out of a job. Not sure how I feel about that.