Cheese is very good with the pizza, he makes it now every Friday night. We used to buy frozen. His is a heck of a lot better. We still buy the dough, and then he rolls it out. I think eventually we should try to make the dough ourselves.
A few weeks back, I had Cheese save me some dough, and I made a pizza too. Mine was so bad, I could only eat the outside of the circle and had to throw the center away, this pleased Cheese no end. I wish I had done it on purpose to fill him with such personal pride, but no, I tried to do well on my pizza, oh how I tried.
The draw-back to all this cooking, besides all the cleaing up, and dishes, is that none of it is very healthy food. I am hoping as we go along, I will be able to steer him towards some less calorically dense menus. Friday he made a mega batch of chocolate chips cookies, and we are all definitely gaining weight on this new cooking plan. The cookies gave me back the weight I had just lost with being sick the week previous. I find I am unable to resist, fresh baked this and that, and freshy made this and that seem to be about my home now in huge quantities.
Mostly I wish to be encouraging on his cooking path. This is a child without many non-electronic hobbies. His favorite ways to pass time are: playing video games, watching TV, and going on the internet. He does at times also build with Legos, read books, and sometimes draw things that have do with video games or comics. So I think cooking is a good hobby to add to the mix, and a good skill to have. I'm just not sure what to do about the whole, there is better, more fattening food in the house, so we are eating it, thing.
On to those muffins, Cheese made them the other week, while I was cleaning up the pizza stuff, and making a marinade for his Saturday dining plans. I took a look at the finished product (the one on the left), bit like rocks really, and gently said "oh....um....do you think maybe perhaps you forgot an ingredient?". He shrugged his shoulders. Having been down this road myself I ventured "baking powder perhaps?". "OOoooh, yeah, I forgot that". I then read the recipe outloud and there were several other things he forgot as well. I told him it was best to go down the list and check things off as you add them. I was concerned that this incident would make him think he couldn't bake, and certainly couldn't make muffins, for that is what I would take away from such an experience, so I said let's find a different muffin recipe and do it again. He was a good sport about it, pleasantly willing to do it all again. I got the stuff out, and he measured, and mixed, and poured (and checked things off as he went down the list), and as you can see, the second batch of muffins (the one on the right), were soft, and rose up nicely (they were tastey too). He celebrated by getting out the steel thing you tenderize meat with, and giving the first batch of muffins a few good whacks.
Last night he posted the menu for this week at The Dingo Cafe. Um...it is, Monday-cheese quesadillas, Tuesday-asian glazed pork (or chicken), Wed.-meat ravioli (made with wonton wrappers?), Thurs- beef tacos, Friday- pizza, Sat-fried chicken, Sun.- a turkey dinner, and apple pie. Oh and of course there are sides, Monday's tomato soup, is the only veg (or fruit if you insist on calling it so) that is among them.
Not at all a Taffy-ish menu. Bit heavy on the read meat, and cheeses, bit light on fruit and veg. I am not sure what to do. I want him to keep his interest in cooking, so I need to keep him interested in eating what is cooked. When I used to do the meal planning, and all the cooking myself, he scarcely ever ate what I made. He would turn his nose up at it and get himself, a bowl of cereal, or peanut butter and jelly, or instant mac and cheese, or instant ramen instead.
I wouldn't worry if we were an athletic sort of group, but um..we aren't.
2 comments:
I think it's brilliant that Cheese is into cooking - very cool.
You know, kids usually know what they both need and like when it comes to diet so perhaps he's just going through a stage where he needs his protein and carbs...? Perhaps you could get him to eat more fruit and veg if you could find cunning ways of serving it - like say a vegetable based burger or fruit smoothies that taste more like milkshake than fruit. And perhaps you could plan menus together - pretending you're running a restaurant and having to cater for different customers needs? You know, just to get him to think more broadly about food.
Happy cooking! ;-)
Vanilla,
Thanks,
I think it is a good thing too.
I like your ideas,
and maybe I can post it as a challenge to him, to see if can find recipes or create his own, that will make veg taste good to him.
:)
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