Unintentional Science Experiment

If you have ever wondered what cookies are like when you forget the baking soda, now you know.

A Lesson Regarding Cooking

I love to cook and I love to eat good food.  When we were first married I taught high school English.  The school I worked at was three minutes away from our apartment so I could easily be home by 3:30 or so every day.  My husband worked in a job with consistent hours so he was always home by 5:00. The way that I would relax when I got home was I would leisurely make a nice dinner and have it ready, with the table set, by the time he walked in the door.  I loved the peace and quiet and the enjoyment that came from making things nice and comfortable for my husband when he walked in the door.  Now, nine years later, things are a bit different.  We have three children, his work hours are erratic, and cooking has become more of a chore than a pleasure. I still love good food and I still love to eat it, but I have come to realize that, for my current time in life, there are some things that I need to compromise on, and this area is one of them.  Does that mean that I am willing to eat microwavable food or five ingredient meals or meat that has become mush in the crockpot because it just had a can of soup dumped over it? No. My compromise is that I make more casseroles than I use to and, upon occasion, we might have to eat a soup that is made of a bunch of canned goods dumped together rather than with all fresh ingredients. (More on this at another time, I hope.) All this being said, here is something connected with cooking that I have learned over the years.
 
Lesson: Don't be a messy cook. I grew up with a small kitchen and I have continued to have small kitchens throughout my married life.  I dream of someday having a huge kitchen with lots of counter space and a giant walk-in pantry, but it probably won't ever happen.  But, there is a lot to be said for small kitchens.  One great things is that it teaches you to be a tidy cook.  When your kitchen is small you have to learn to clean a bit as you cook, and if you have a small kitchen and don't do this, I would strongly recommend making an attempt to start this practice.  This isn't something that helps you enjoy the cooking process more, it helps you not go crazy over the clean-up.  I am tired by the time that I start doing the dishes (as my husband his helping get the kids ready for bed, this is my time to be alone) and the last thing I want is to be in the kitchen for an hour as I try to clean up the mess.  If you clean as you go, then you should primarily be washing the dishes that you at off of, putting food away, and cleaning the pots that the food actually cooked in.  This is a much easier process than when you add in the mess from dinner prep as well.
  Also, learn to make some good casseroles.  Casseroles are great because you make dinner, stick it in the oven, and while it bakes, you can clean the kitchen.

Dinner as a Family

One of my favorite childhood memories, is how we always sat down together for dinner. We would sit in either our kitchen or our dining room and we all had our usual seat. Sometimes the meal would be fancy or, when my dad wasn’t home for dinner, it might be hamburger patties, macaroni and cheese, and carrot sticks. We never ate popcorn or cereal for dinner. On very rare occasions, we had breakfast for dinner.  But, no matter which table we were at, what we were eating, or whether or not my dad was home—which he mostly was—we always sat down to eat as a family.  In this area, I know that my husband was raised the same way.

   

This is something that is very important to both my husband and me. Each night we all sit at one table together, pray a blessing over the food, eat, and talk.  (There are nights where Patrick is working and cannot be home for dinner, and on these nights the rest of us still sit together at the table for dinner.) This will always continue because it is one of the few times in the day where we are all together as a family.  I believe that this is important for a few reasons:

1.) We teach our children table manners.  My kids are ages six, three, and ten months, and they are able to sit through an entire meal without being crazy.  Each night while we eat we are teaching our children as well as spending time with them. (“Sebastian, put your knees down and sit up straight at the table”, “Evelyn, we don’t wave our fork, with food on it, around or try to dance at the table,” “Cecilia, don’t scream or throw food on the ground.”) We remind them to say “please” and “thank you,” to just sit at the table and wait quietly if they finish before everyone else does, and then, when we are finished, to ask to be excused. They are not allowed to come, eat—or not eat as the case may be—get down when they want to be done, and run off to play more. We sit as a family until we are all finished.  Some evenings we will say prayers after the meal, or read a bible story. (This does not happen as often as we would like, but we are working on improving it.) It is a time where we focus upon each other and just being together.

2.) The kids learn that they are not the center of attention—something that is very important for them to learn. At dinner, Patrick and I have a conversation. This does not mean that the kids just sit there silently and never say a word, they are more than welcome to join into the conversation.  However, we are teaching them not to interrupt, and to not be too silly at the table while we are attempting to talk.  Patrick will also take the time to ask each child about their day and find out what they did.  This is an opportunity for the kids to tell daddy their special stories or exciting news about learning to ride their bike or something that they read in a book. 

3.) We all eat the same meal. I am not a special order cook, I do not make different food for the children, they eat what we eat. However, the kids are allowed to have one thing that they may choose to not eat, (Sebastian doesn’t like eggplant, Evelyn isn’t a huge fan of potatoes) but they have to eat everything else. We are teaching them that, someone took the time and energy to make you this food, be grateful, and even if you don’t really like it, you don’t show it, and you never say, “yuck.”

     

 The result of all of this work? We are able to enjoy family time (in a way that really means a lot to my husband) while also teaching our children how to behave in public. Do my children behave perfectly? Of course not. Is this a work in progress? Always, but it is something that I believe to be worth the effort.