Domesticating Tobi

This weekend, the kids and I took part in a very entertaining activity known as 'cooking'. It involves sharp knives, slabs of sturdy wood, and copious amounts of organic substances. For those of you that are pyromaniacs, you'll be happy to know that I used fire too!

I'm not sure what prompted me to do this, maybe out of boredom, or it could be that I've been craving a hearty soup lately. Either way, it turned out to be quite a tasty meal (and left-overs).

Cut to the scene where the little girl and I are shoulder to shoulder reading through the cookbook...

She has been watching the Food Network lately, so her interest in cooking has made her the ideal cooking partner. I told her that we should keep it simple because I'm still a noob when it comes to preparing meals, so we hung out for at least an hour deciding what we should cook. Eventually I offered the choice between Chili Con Carne, or Vegetable Beef Soup.

Of course, if I had left it to both of them to choose, we would've starved before deciding which one we'd cook. By default, since little girl was taking an active role in looking through the cookbook (and I figured the boy wouldn't be interested in helping), I let her make the call.

Vegetable Beef Soup was her choice and a fantastic one it was.

So we made our way to the Grocery store where I spent most of my time fighting off attempts from my son to deviate from my modest shopping list. I'm not sure how many times I told him 'No', but it eventually took a dirty look (I learned from my Mother) to silence him. He finally settled for Popcorn over his favored Pretzels and Nacho cheese. It was either that, or a big fat bowl of nothing. He's a smart kid.

We got home virtually unscathed from the Grocery store and unpacked all the goodies before I started the cooking task.

I'll pause to add this one note about having faith in the instructions you read in a cookbook. Just reading the instructions (please don't tell the other guys I read them, I'll lose my 'guy' status if they find out I read instructions) isn't enough. Following them is another step that most take for granted. And of course, the execution is the most important part. Worst case scenario, you fuck it up and then you waste money on food that's inedible. Still...it's all a valuable learning lesson. Anyway, digression over.

I deviated from the cookbook only slightly, but for the most part, I kept it 'by the book'. Personally, and the little girl agreed with me, Lima beans really didn't sound all that appetizing along with the other ingredients we decided to include in the soup.

The first part was pretty simple; Heat water with the spices, seasonings, and the meat. Check!

Heated it for two hours while checking on it every 10-15 minutes to make sure the water didn't boil (instructions said to just 'simmer'). This also presented a good opportunity to let the kids help by letting them stir it and make sure it was going well.

After the meat was ready, I cut it into neat squares and piled it back into the pot. Meanwhile, the kids expertly chopped the remaining vegetables. It may seem like a small task, but I really do believe they get something out of it if not being able to say they 'helped' make a feast fit for a king. We added it all together in the pot and then let it simmer for another hour.

Once I gave the green light to try the soup, I served it up in bowls and we ate it with some French Bread~Double YUM!!! I don't think one of us talked while we gobbled down the feast.

Looking back, I think the hardest part of making the soup was having to wait for it to finish. Overall, it was a very nice ending to our weekend together. I'm really going to miss them once I leave for my vacation.

Anyway, hope you all had a nice weekend too! PEACE.