Friday, October 30, 2009

Keepin' It Real in the Kitchen

I have never claimed to be crafty. I really wish I had a knack for such--but the learning curve seems steeper every time I decide to try to become a bit more Martha Stewart-esque. Several weeks ago I came across this great site called Living Locurto and pledged to myself (AGAIN) that I was going to try to get more confident in the kitchen and in matters of craftiness.

I can read recipes and directions. I like fun activities with my children. Why am I so intimidated?

During K's class party this morning I admired the cute "Funny Bone" treats another Mom prepared. She told me how simple they were and how much fun her 4 year old had had as they made them. I remembered another pretzel rod Mummy snack I had seen tagged "easy" on a site a couple of days ago and felt inspired. So, after school we stopped at Kroger to purchase a few supplies and came home to get our craftiness on.

Needless to say the projects were not exactly easy to this novice. The kids lost interest and I got freaked out about all the sticky mess, but I pushed through. My finished products were pitiful compared to the ones others had done, but I was at least proud of our attempt...and we made some memories!

After spending so much time in the kitchen I decided to cook a pot of chili. Because of my husband's schedule, I only cook for our full family once a week. On nights that he is not home for dinner, I eat something easy and prepare dinner for the kids. They are generally playing when I do so...and since their taste involves nothing mixed together, it is rarely anything requiring multiple ingredients.

Even so, I was alarmed when K was so curious about what I was up to. She shadowed my every move as I browned the meat and opened the cans of tomatoes and beans. (She absolutely loved the "kid beans" by the way and begged to me to pack a can of them in her lunchbox next week.)

I really should do this more often, I thought. I felt a twinge of pride that I was finally teaching my girl something that might help her one day be better in the kitchen than I am. The great record scratch screech moment came when I asked her to get me a can opener. She brought back a wine opener. Then I asked for a spatula and she was stumped.
When I showed her a spatula she replied, "Oh! I thought that was for killing flies."
Nice!

5 comments:

laurie said...

Love it!!! Mine would be the same way, if I ever gave them the chance to be :-) Love the pic of R and Lucy. She looks so chubby!!!

Love Being A Nonny said...

I think the treats look GREAT! I'm sure the kids thought so too...and that's really what matters!

....*I thought that was for killing flies*...priceless!

HW said...

Don't be so hard on yourself. As much as I love to cook, kids just keep you humble.
Like the time my daughter saw a fresh pear for the first time and said "I didn't know they made pears like that." She'd only had canned ones. And the time I served store bought brown gravy with my meatloaf and my son said "why is there chocolate sauce on my potatoes?" because I'd never made gravy before at all.

Another great craftie food (or foodie craft) is the lincoln log cabin made out of pretzel sticks and canned cheese spray (for the glue) Don't know where I found it years ago but it's a great February project - for Lincoln's birthday (which is big here in Illinois)I bet you can find it on google.

Amy @ Living Locurto said...

Those look great! The pretzel mummies are harder to make than they look right? It took me forever to make only 6. ha! Have a fun Halloween!!

Jill said...

OK- laughing WITH you about the wine opener vs. can opener. My husband always says the wine opener is my key to anything productive happening in the cooking or housecleaning department. ha!