The Joy of (not) Cooking

A couple of months ago I decided it was time to teach my kids to cook. They can make basic things, like mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, toast, etc,but it was time to move them onto the next level.

I started out by having one kid in charge of dinner each night. With my supervision, they have been learning to braise meat, season sauces, cook rice, etc. Now I just have to let them know which meal they are making and they can pretty much get it made on their own.

This is working out really well for me. I have six kids at home. I cook dinner on Tuesday nights at the church, and then one of them is in charge each night for the rest of the week. And so far, they think this is FUN and argue over who gets to cook. I have the younger ones paired up with the older ones, and I still supervise, but my workload has dramatically decreased.

Our church had a chili cook-off a couple of weeks ago to raise money for the youth group to go on a mission this summer. It was Todd's turn to cook, so I let him make our chili.

He made chipotle chili. He opened all the cans, cooked the meat, and added all the spices.

Boy, did he ever add the spices.

It was great chili, but you have to be able to take the heat if you wanted to eat it.


Jack said Todd's chili was the best tasting chili there, and I agreed. We are biased that way, and we like spicy food. The chipotles gave it a true Southwestern flavor. It was incredibly yummy.

Sadly, Todd didn't win the chili cook-off, but if there had been a burn-down-your-esophagus-and-make-a-beeline-for-the-lemonade category, he would have cleaned house.

Better luck next year, buddy!