Okay, so I can’t cook. Or to be more accurate, I have no desire to cook. But don’t hold it against me. It’s just that I’d rather focus my time as a mom on having extraordinary adventures with my kids rather than deciding whether to use the high or low setting on my Crockpot. As a result, my kids are exposed to unique destinations and activities, but not the tantalizing smell of homemade meals.
It does make me feel a little guilty, considering the shows I most watch on TV are on the Food Network. But the only thing I’ve really learned from these teaching programs is that I prefer to watch other people prepare food while I eat.
I admit that during the summer, I do like to grill vegetables and concoct all types of pasta salads. My 5-year-old, Casey, is an adventurous eater. If it looks good, usually he’ll at least taste it, whereas my 8-year-old Jack will reluctantly lick, say, a succulent piece of steak, before he rejects it as if I offered him a plate of fried crickets. Jack’s dining repertoire is limited to grilled-cheese sandwiches and canned peaches.
The apple doesn’t fall far…
When I was growing up, my mom had dinner on the table every night at 6:15 p.m. She had a knack for serving chicken about 35 different ways. I’m suddenly having a flashback to a night she dredged chicken breasts in Dijon mustard and rolled them in cornflakes. Yes, you heard me correctly.
So, besides our adventures in chicken, we basically ate the same things week to week – a protein accompanied by boxed, canned or frozen food. So now you can see why this is exactly how I cook for my family.
On the other hand, my Aunt Joyce, who lives around the corner from my parents, is one of the best experimental cooks I know. She loves trying out new recipes, and rarely serves the same dish twice. Even when my kids and I had a weeknight dinner there, she made it fun by filling various bowls with child-friendly veggies and toppings, making us a salad bar. But she is renowned for her matzoh ball soup.
Afather’s influence
My husband, Joe, also loves to cook. He works for the phone company, but his dream is to have his own restaurant or food truck, as he’s most content and at ease in the kitchen. He can juggle five or six dishes on the stove at a time, which I find inconceivable. My boys both devour his sauce with meatballs and sausage.
Every few months, Joe takes the boys to an evening cooking class. One of the local supermarkets has a teaching kitchen and offers a selection of parent-child sessions. The boys get dressed up in their personalized aprons and chef hats, and they all spend two hours together preparing the ingredients, cooking the meal and then dining together. It’s a great bonding experience for them.
Cooking comes so naturally to Joe, which I attribute to both of his parents being comfortable in the kitchen. His Irish father would whip up lamb stew, Sunday roasts and splitpea soup with ham for Joe and his three siblings. His Sicilian mom is a master at making freshly mashed turnips, ham with raisin gravy and every imaginable Christmas cookie. She teases me about my culinary apathy.
Passing down recipes
Everyone can recall favorite family dishes that left an impression because they tasted so familiar and delicious. I wanted to give that gift of food to my children since I clearly can’t provide it myself. It’s easy to pass down a recipe, but I thought we’d take it one step further and do it in a more tactile way.
I asked my dad’s wife “Bobbi,” Aunt Joyce and my mother-in-law “Nana” if they could each separately spend a few hours with my boys teaching them to cook one of their specialties. They all were happy to do it.
Bobbi, who is originally from the Ukraine, makes from scratch the most savory potato-and-onion pierogies smothered in caramelized onions. The day we came over, she had premade some of the ingredients. She helped the boys cut rounds out of dough using an upside down glass. They then loaded the circles with the filling, sealed them up and boiled them. The boys really enjoyed the handson, interactive experience.
My aunt gave them a matzoh ball soup lesson. She set up the kitchen with mixing bowls and all the ingredients. They had a blast cracking the eggs and forming the balls. She was making jokes and kept them completely entertained. The best part, of course, was watching them both eat the finished product! (And I might have had a bowl or two for myself…)
Nana bakes about 12 varieties of Christmas cookies each year. It’s a tradition for her to pass out sampler plates to all her Brooklyn neighbors. Her treats range from rugelach to chocolate-mint sandwiches to rainbow layer cookies. But the crème de la crème are her tea-time tassies — mini dough cups filled with molasses and walnuts. Nana taught the boys howto place a dollop of cream cheese in each compartment of a mini-cupcake tin, press out the cup shape, add the filling and nuts, and bake.
As a parent, I got such enjoyment out of watching Jack and Casey have one-on-one time with relatives in this way. When we spend time together with family, it’s usually as a large group, so it’s difficult for them to get that undivided attention.
Maybe one of these days (or weeks…or months) I’ll change my ways and teach myself to cook. Look for the follow-up in Dinnigan’s Procrastinations.
But I do know one thing: by the time you read this article, I will definitely have all my take-out menus alphabetized. Baby steps. To follow Lizz Dinnigan,“friend” her on Facebook under Dinnigan’s Diversions.