Someone Else Cooked!!

Someone else in this scenario means one of the children. Andrew does his fair share, mostly on weekends, and can at least be counted on for ideas during the week. The children? Not so much. When asked for meal ideas, there is a lot of hemming and hawing, I don't knows, and repeat suggestions -- usually involving pasta. Gluten free pasta is tough to find in the stores these days, and I've never been moved to make my own. The other frequent sugestion is takeout -- who's paying this food bill, anyway?

It has taken some time, and a lot of convincing, and possible a couple maternal tantrums, but there are finally some results in the dinner planning arena. Last week, Caroline showed me a list of potential meal ideas. Imagine my surprise when she said she had even looked up recipes!! The next few days involved some discussion about which one to make, when to do it, and whether we had the supplies. Finally, the selected day arrived . . .

"So, how long do you think this will take? When should I get started?"
"Did you read the recipe?"
"Right. It says 15 minutes total cooking time! That will be easy!"

Hmm . . . the dish was Spanish Rice with Chicken. This timeline seems suspicious, as rice does not cook in 15 minutes . . .

"I think you should look at the recipe again. What does it say about the rice?"
"The rice? Oh! It says leftover or already cooked rice."
Silence.
"Ugh. I have to cook that ahead then, don't I?"
"Yup."
"Shoot. I know, I'll make Dad do it!"
"You can't cook rice?"
"Well . . ."

"What time should we eat?"
"Your dad is working, Tim has a class, Linnea is taking a test at 6:00."
"So, 5:15? 5:30? 5:45?"
"Sure, one of those."
"Mom."

"Is it time to start cooking yet?"
"You could make the rice."
"There's probably enough time, I don't have to do it yet."

"Should I start cooking soon?"
"Did you make the rice?"
"Not yet."
"You could do that."

"Did you make the rice yet? You really need to do that."
"I don't really know how. Dad always makes the rice."
"You know, I can show you how to make rice."
"Oh! Good! Okay, you make the rice."
Honestly.

"Okay. Now, you cook the chicken while I cut up the vegetables."
"I'm helping with this part, too?"
"Yup!"

"I'm doubling the recipe. So, if it says one medium onion, I can just use two."
"Is that a question?"
"No, no, no, I'm using two onions."

"Cutting up onions always makes me cry."
"Cutting onions makes everyone cry."
"Hey, why is Caroline crying?"
"I'm cutting onions. It's so, so sad . . ."

"Hey, this looks good! Doesn't it look good? Do you think it will be good?"
"It looks delicious!"
"Nobody's going to like it."
"I'm sure they will like it."
"No, no, no, no one will eat it."

"Sabine! Why did you take such a small amount?"
"I'm not really that hungry."
"Yes, you are! You just don't like it!"
"I haven't even tried it!"
"She doesn't like it . . ."
"She's probably just not hungry."
"Yeah, right. She hates my cooking."

"Linnea isn't finishing hers."
"Linnea never finishes anything."
"She finishes her Mac & Cheese!"
"You're right. She never finishes anything I cook, either."
"That's fair. But she also probably doesn't like it."

"Oooh! Look, everybody!!"
"Look at what?"
"Tim!! He's having seconds!"
"He probably likes it."
"Do you think so, really?"
"Well, he's having a second full plate . . ."

"There's a lot left over. Nobody liked it."
"Everybody liked it, and leftovers are good. People will eat it tomorrow."
"I guess . . ."

"Phew. That was exhausting."

I'm sure it was. Welcome to my world. And, thanks for cooking, Caroline!