“smush kidney beans with sour cream makes a rely good FANCY dinner with music like in a resturant with fruit all  urawnd the table.” My son typed that.

Translation: Smooshing kidney beans with sour cream makes a really good FANCY dinner with music like in a restaurant with fruit all around the table.

The other night, our boy, 6.5 years old, decided to be in charge of dinner. Yay for me! Not that I fool myself for one second that he will do this more often from now on. However, we were so thrilled about the initiative that we gave him complete freedom to do as he pleased. (As long as it’s safe.) Dinner was so awesome that I even invited him to write a guest post on the blog. He was excited about it at first but after 10-15 minutes of typing he lost interest. It’s hard work – typical 6 year-olds don’t want to work too hard. He is also a perfectionist from birth (it’s in his genes from both sides of the family) so typing was slow as wanted to type each and every word correctly. He claims he is “youth” now but I say, “You’re only “Youth” when you go snow tubing and the people there want to charge us extra money for your ticket.” Isn’t that so?!

In any case, this was too good not to blog about. I know it was a rare event but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I’m happy to see that we do have some influence on our children. And a good one so far. I can’t wait for the teenage years! Ahm, yeah, right… Well, we’ll see what happens when he becomes a “youth” for real. Until then, baby steps, we’ll take it a day at a time, cross our fingers and hope for the best. But I won’t hold my breath!

When the boys get to play in the kitchen they usually fry something and they do a great job at that, usually making fish ‘n chips, shrimp tempura, and chicken Schnitzel. This time the little guy’s cooking was limited only to rinsing the beans. His choice. He had big plans for the evening and wanted to invest his talents doing other stuff.

That night he was really in charge. He chose the menu – (almost) out of the blue he asked for bean dip…….. Bean. Dip. ? – remembering liking it when we had lunch last summer on the patio of a Mexican restaurant. He bossed his dad in the kitchen telling him what to do,

he set the table all by himself including decorating and styling the food. Notice the napkins, flowers, yellow tube around the vase, and later, a ribbon and scattered fruits were added.

Sautéed chicken breasts with garlic and mayonnaise. The husb’s specialty

Tying a ribbon around the table… Nice touch…

The centerpiece

“We’ll eat the fruit for dessert”, he announced.

Bean dip in progress.

Then food styled with bananas. With their stickers. Another fine touch. A few of us like the dip “smooshed” and some like to eat the beans whole. How very considerate.

Then he ran to put some music on to set the mood, “like in a restaurant”. After that he announced “Dinner’s readyyyyyyyyy”, and a little someone went quickly down the stairs to get to the kitchen. She was hungry. (It usually takes longer for dinner to be ready when the boys play… ah, cook, it.)

What a great “FANCY” dinner we had. Bean dip, sautéed chicken, leftover baked potatoes, a pretty table, good company. And music.

This dip was a very very good. Basically, drained and rinsed canned pinto beans, “smooshed” with sautéed onion and garlic that were cooked with butter, then mixed with sour cream. Pureed, or not, to the desired consistency.

Now guess who’s going to clean up after?

Tags : dinner, Family, kids
Categories : Family