Chef in Training!

Silly Me. 

I got it in my head that my 6 year old (who LOVES to cook, by the way), could make my life easier by learning to cook a few meals and taking over dinner time every so often.  In my head, I saw it something like this:  She looks through a kids' cookbook and picks a recipe.  Something simple like, oh, I don't know...pbj?  mac & cheese?  Or, for something really daring, maybe she decides on tacos and needs a little help with the ground beef.  Then, I purchase the ingredients (or, better yet, use what we already have!), and she fixes the meal, sets the table, and voila!  I have a night mostly "off."

Fast forward to tonight.  After THREE DAYS of my daughter scouring countless kids' cookbooks from the library, she had narrowed down her recipes to approximately FIFTY.  THEN, she announced she needed an appetizer, main dish, side dishES, and, you guessed it, DESSERT!   In an effort to not discourage this new venture, I gamely went along with it.  I dutifully shopped for the ingredients while she was in school this week, and after picking her up from school today and going to a quick well-check visit, we raced home to start THE MEAL.

Course 1:  Pizza Braid.  Just like it sounds, we BRAIDED 3 strands of breadsticks for each person.  One strand was covered in diced pepperoni, another in parmesan cheese, and the 3rd in Italian seasoning.  I must confess, they were delicious, AND I learned that my daughter knows how to braid!  This was by far the least time consuming of the courses, other than the sides (more on that later).

Course 2:  Mini Cheeseburgers.  She mixed a little meatloaf seasoning in with some ground beef and pattied out cute, tiny little patties, which we then baked.  Did you know you can BAKE hamburger patties?  I didn't!  Learned something else!  We had all the fixin's for the burgers, complete with toothpicks to hold the cute little burgers together!  We tried for "fancy" toothpicks, but my son and I went to EVERY store in town with no luck.

Course 3:  The "sides."  Loved this part!  Salad (from a bag with some fresh veggies thrown in), kettle potato chips for Daddy, who doesn't "do" veggies, and a strawberry/blueberry fruit cup mixed by my daughter for her and for her little brother.  I must admit this was a proud moment for me to have my child CHOOSE fresh fruits and veggies when she had freedom to put whatever she wanted on her plate!

Course 4:  Dessert.  THIS was the doozy.  A "rainbow" cake.  What's a rainbow cake, you ask?  Just what it sounds like.  A cake.  With rainbow colored polkadots inside.  Made from colored cake batter.  AND decorated in rainbow icing colors.   Whew.  We ended up being pretty rushed for this, so she just had to slap some icing on it, but it was delicious.

I bet you think that's all to the story, right?  Wrong.  We got ready to sit down to eat, and here comes my daughter with handwritten menus for all of us, along with hand-drawn and decorated place cards with our names on them.  Granted, my husband's name ended up with about 4 extra vowels, but it was the thought that counted for us!

I learned a lot tonight: 
1. Having my child cook for me is NOT a night off.  Rather, it could be a 4 1/2 hour endeavor that leaves my kitchen in total chaos.
2.  My child is just like me in so many ways.  The whole "overkill" part of the dinner with the colorful cake, place cards, menus, etc. sounds just like me.  As much as I get frustrated at times, I am thankful at these moments that my own mom put up with all of these crazy traits in me so that I could pass them along to MY daughter now! :)
3.  My child is her own person.  She has creative ideas, plans, and dreams that are totally separate from me. She asks my input but still has her own mind about how to proceed.
4.  My daughter still needs me.  Even though she's six-going-on-twenty-six and likes to pretend that she can face this world alone, she still needs me...and sometimes I need to know that!  Several times she tried to tackle something on her own with this meal, only to realize she needed Mommy's help.  I cherished those moments, even though allowing her to reach the point of asking for help meant my kitchen floor was covered in powdered sugar, my table was smeared with icing, and a few ingredients were "wasted" as they spilled all over me, her, and everything around us. 
5.  Some day I might have a clean kitchen (not likely as long as I live here), but it will be much emptier than it was tonight. What is a little mess if it brings my kids great joy?  There are plenty of years for "floors you could eat off of."  For tonight, a slightly sticky rainbow-colored linoleum floor is exactly what my "dream house" is made out of.