What's Cooking

I got the basic idea from my girlfriend. She used to have her son cook once a week when he was growing up. With my family I took the idea and tweaked it a bit. The kids rotate cooking a meal. At first it was one a week but now it works out that one child cooks sometime in a two week period. They must pick a recipe, make sure we have all of the ingredients or put them on the grocery list, cook the meal and clean up. And no repeats ( I have a spreadsheet - go figure). Once they make a recipe they can not count that as one of their meals a second time. The keepers I do throw into our regular mix. I have a cookbook collection that is out of control and I do help and suggest as needed. They have learned cooking skills, math skills, planning and that not everyone likes the same thing. They have also learned that preparing meals every night is not as easy as I make it look. They have picked recipes that I would have never tried. It has expanded all of our horizons. They appreciate good food. My youngest has made comments about processed cheese and cheap hot dogs of late. Not what she gets at home. On vacation she ordered alligator - everyone tried it and liked it. Son has admitted that my homemade cookies are way better than store bought (for him this is huge).

When on vacation we try and eat at the local restaurants and try the food in that area. We had some really good BBQ and lots of sweet tea while in Tennessee, seafood in Maine, Portuguese food in Fall River, MA, crab in the Chesapeake Bay area, and fried okra and hush puppies in the South.

Son is cooking next. He is making a chili pasta dish. It's not a soup - more of a casserole with pasta and chili ingredients. Today I am making spaghetti sauce. I need it for pizza on the grill tonight and son needs some for his recipe.

What's your specialty?