one night as we were eating a dinner that my precocious, i mean precious, daughter didn't like, she says i want to make dinner tomorrow. in my mind i am thinking she is going to torture me with some horrible dinner just to get back at me, but i decided to to let this play out. what do you want to make? spaghetti and meatballs. phew...not as bad as i had envisioned.
p's idea of making dinner is purchasing already made items (sauce and meatballs) heating them up and serving. voila, dinner! for this mamma that cooks as many things from scratch as i possibly can, that is not cooking. so we sat down looked through recipes and found a meatball recipe that seemed easy and tasty. a time issue stopped us from making our own sauce, but next time we will get that going too.
trying to cook with a 10 year old that has a limited attention span has it's challenges. first is the hand washing. as she goes to dive into the bowl of meat i screech like a wild banshee have you washed your hands? with a grin from ear to ear she proudly says yep. knowing full well that she didn't wash her hands in my presence i naturally ask when? a wrinkle spreads across her forehead as she tries to remember when, that day, she actually washed her hands this morning at school. hmmm...well dear you need to wash them again before you touch the food that we are going to be eating.
with washed hands, she goes to dive into the bowl of meat. another screech escapes my mouth wait! first you need to read your directions and add the rest of the ingredients that get mixed with the meat. just like watching a cooking program, i have all the ingredients out on my ultra small counter just waiting to be used. she adds the bread crumbs, cracks the egg into the bowl, scoops out some ricotta cheese, and adds the spices. now she is looking in the bowl, looks up at me and says i have to use my hands?
she was so eager to play with just the raw hamburger, but now that there are slimy eggs, cold cheese, poky spices and crunchy breadcrumbs her eagerness has waned. after i chuckle just a little bit (she is at that age where you can't poke fun at her or her attitude goes from superb to grouchy in less than a second and she disengages) i tell her your hands are your best tool in cooking. get in there. she reluctantly dug in, mixed all the ingredients and then we rolled them into meatballs.
when we sat down to dinner she was more excited to eat than usual. there is a theory that kids are more excited and willing to eat if they are involved in the process of preparing it. this held true this time. they weren't the best meatballs i have ever had, i would definitely alter the recipe just a little bit, but p gobbled up her plate of meatballs and spaghetti like it was the best she had ever eaten. ash is a different story he doesn't like anything healthy for him and chokes every meal down.
my precocious, i mean precious, daughter has expressed interest in making dinner again. i will continue to encourage her to dabble in the kitchen. hopefully, as an adult, her skills in the kitchen will mask the overall grouchiness that is peyton. *wink*
in case you wanted to try these meatballs yourself, here is the link to the blog i got the recipe from. hopefully the link works, i am not very tech savvy. Plain Chicken: Beef Meatballs - The Meatball Shop:
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