Kids Who Cook

Yesterday, our oldest son, Adam, came up to me with a big hunk of asiago cheese that my aunt had given us and asked me what I thought he could do with it. "What if I melt it on a turkey sandwich?" he asked. I quickly looked it up and saw it was good in sauces and omelets and such but said, "Sure, give it a try."

So, out came the sandwich press and Adam said, "Oooooo, I'm going to brush the sandwiches with THIS," holding up the jar of olive oil infused with cracked pepper and various Italian seasonings that we'd made a few weeks ago. I was tickled that he thought of it. And even more tickled when he said he'd make me a sandwich, too.

My sandwich could have done with less of the cheese or more of the peppered turkey - whew, I was sweating it a little finishing that strong, rich cheese. Don't get me wrong - I'm a stinky cheese fan. But, this was a little bit much. Adam got the ratio right on his sandwich, though. The infused oil was inspired. Oh my goodness.

Skip forward a few hours and it was Tanner who was standing in front of me with a piece of salmon in one hand and a piece of cod in the other. He wanted the recipe for the honey garlic glaze that I made a week or two ago for the salmon, then said, "I don't think that glaze would be good for the cod, though, do you Mom?" Smart boy. No, I agreed the glaze wouldn't work. We discussed what could be done with lemon and pepper and off he went.

I couldn't help but think of my culinary adventures at their ages: Hamburger Helper at about Tan's tender age of 13, macaroni with butter and salt when I was 19 (admittedly, at Adam's age I was intent on saving my food money to use for gas money to drive to Phoenix on the weekends for after hours dancing at the Devil House. No satanic twist there - it was close to the Arizona State University campus, home of the Sun Devils.)

Anyway, while I was a pretty good cook as a youngster, I didn't delve into the culinary arts. I certainly wasn't turning out anything as scrumptious and beautiful as this lemon tart that Adam recently gifted us with.


Ahh, the joys of having kids who cook. I wouldn't want to enlist them to make dinner every night, because, hey, it's not fair for them to have all the fun. But it's good to know that if I needed them to carry the cooking load, we wouldn't be stuck with macaroni, hold the cheese.

In case you're worried about the girls - don't be. Their culinary gifts are coming along, too. They're taking a cooking class through 4H and having a ball.

Budding chefs, one and all. Can't wait to have this year's garden harvest for family playtime and art class.

Love from the farm,
Teri