Day 278

I am admittedly very guilty of being the parent that does not force her kid to do chores. I always have best intentions, but for some reason, I haven't been able to stay consistent, aside from making him be in charge of feeding the dogs. I do have "issues" when it comes to my house, and the few times I have asked him to put his clothes away I wound up going behind him and straightening everything the way I liked it....

On the plus side, my son is not a very messy kid. His room honestly stays as clean as mine does. But ask him to clean a bathroom or vacuum and the sighing and eye rolling begins...

Time for a change. But where to start? After complaining about a meal that I made (a healthy one with vegetable and all sorts of nasty stuff...), I decided that cooking was as good of a place as any.

So, the 11-year old has officially been placed in charge of one meal per week for the entire family. I told him I don't care if it is PB&J, as long as he makes the sandwiches for all three of us. I also put a few stipulations out there- pizza and macaroni with cheese is not a dinner, and chocolate cake is not appropriate for breakfast, no matter what Bill Cosby says.

Other than that, the field was wide open for him. And when asked what he would like to tackle first, he chose soft tacos. I figured it was a pretty safe start, and one that had some skills he could apply for other meals.

As I helped him get started, I truly began to realize how much he doesn't know about food and cooking. I showed him the difference between ground beef and ground turkey, and explained that most ground meat comes in packages of one pound, as most recipes (tacos, spaghetti, sloppy joes...) utilize right around that much.

Next was figuring out which knob on the stove turns on which burner....something I take for granted every day. He had to learn lingo like "frying pan" and "spatula" just to get started, and then was taught how to watch the meat for the turning of pink to brown to signify it's ready (and more importantly, safe) to eat.

It was cute watching him struggle with how to hold utensils, including the can opener for the refried beans and sliced olives. But he got the hang of it soon enough, and moved on to chopping tomatoes. "Why do I have to cut up tomatoes? I don't put tomatoes on my tacos", he said. Grr..."Because cooking is not always just about you, son". I hovered and put my hands in my pockets as he used the serrated (another term learned) knife to slice the tomato, and took deep breaths as he flung refried beans all over my white cabinets when he tried to stir them....

But, in the end, we had a soft taco feast. He declared that these were the best soft tacos he had ever eaten, of course. And although my kitchen and my nerves were a mess, I had to admit they were pretty good.

Tonight's picture represents learning to cook, and teaching your children life lessons that will hopefully prevent them from surviving on microwaveable meals as an adult. When I asked him what he wanted to cook next week, he replied, "Hmm...I'm not sure yet". I'm just waiting to catch him with my Rachel Ray magazine.....Next month, he will learn to do laundry- and how frustrating it is when someone puts their socks in the wash inside out!!