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What is it about food that tastes so much better when someone else cooks it? I don’t even mean a fancy dinner at a five-star restaurant or a perfectly cooked, medium-rare t-bone at the best steakhouse. Not even the juiciest, crispy-skinned bird that I get when I go to my grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving.
I am talking about a regular box of macaroni and cheese.
My thirteen-year old son made dinner Monday night. It was one of those crazy nights, similar to most in my house, where I had to run an errand right after work. Then I drove like a bat out of you-know-where to get home and see my oldest daughter out the door to have dinner with friends, leaving me with an hour and half to cook dinner, pick up my other daughter from marching band practice before feeding the boys and getting them to Boy Scouts by 6:30 p.m.
Lucky for me, I had taken some heat and eat barbecue beef out of the freezer the night before. The only thing left was to find something to eat with it. This is where the macaroni and cheese comes in, along with a teenage boy who seems quite willing to take on a little extra responsibility in the kitchen.
So with a few directions on how to heat the beef without burning it, I left him with dinner to prepare while I drove to the high school to do my carpool duty. Relieved that I didn’t have to make do with fast food tonight. Glad that it wasn’t peanut butter and jelly. Ecstatic that my son was confident enough to take on the job at hand, due to the fact that I have trusted him with small tasks in the kitchen before and coupled with the knowledge from the cooking class he is taking at school.
When I came home with my daughter, dinner was just getting done, and together we ate barbecue beef sandwiches and some of the best boxed macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten. No. Really. Even I don’t make it out of the box like he does. Lucky for me, there was enough left to sneak to work for lunch the next day. Yippee!
The next best part of this evening was the fact everyone helped unload the dishwasher so that my daughter could do the dishes. Then the boys had a little down time to get ready for Scouts and mom had time to sit down. For a minute.
This evening was a win for everyone. My son accomplished cooking a satisfying meal, gleaning praise from everyone who noshed that evening. I was able to give a great, big sigh of relief that I had one more busy evening under my belt, and everyone rose to the occasion to take part and make the evening a family affair.
And while I suspect we will still have times when fast food will save the night, or peanut butter and jelly will be all that time can afford, I will take any opportunity I can to savor the moment that my son will take to make us that box of macaroni and cheese.
I love these little peeks into your family's life! You are raising capable children who will not go hungry, it sounds like. :)
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