Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A New Tradition I Can Love



I have always held that if Peter wants better dinners the only way he would get them was if he started cooking himself. After 13 years, he finally realized I wasn't bluffing. Actually, for Christmas this year he gave me a very thoughtful gift: 3 cookbooks. From which he would choose dinners to make. The first week he took Elise with him to the store. After 5 calls home asking if we owned ingredients I had never heard of, he came home and they made a delicious dinner and dessert (on a sidenote, notice the 3 boxes of soda stacked next to Elise).


Thus was born a new tradition in our home. Once a week, more or less (sometimes less, never more), Peter and one of the kids choose a recipe and a dessert, go out and buy the ingredients and make it for the family. I get a break, the kids get one on one time with Dad, and Peter gets a meal that requires more than 3 ingredients to make. It is a win-win for everyone.


He's done it 2 times so far and they have both been excellent (and I now know some nonalcoholic substitutions for rice wine, have cinnamon sticks in my spice cabinet, and spinach has made its first appearance in my fridge).

20 comments:

  1. Hooray for interesting recipes! And husbands who cook!

    Hope you enjoy all the good new food!

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  2. That means I only have 7 more years before Ricky figures out if he doesn't want mushrooms in something he has to cook it! Whoo hoo! I have to say, if Peter runs out of ideas in the cookbooks he bought, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (10th anniversary edition) is AWESOME.

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  3. I love that instead of putting the ingredients on your weekly shopping list, an extra trip is made. For us, that usually means a lot of extra stuff that may or may not be as healthy as what I would buy. I do love the whole dad-cooks-with-a-child thing.

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  4. That is a great idea! Hmmm.....maybe I will have Andy check out your blog....

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  5. That sounds like such fun... for dad and kid... until mom has to clean up... In our house if Barlow were in charge of dinner it would be mac'n'cheese and hotdogs every night :-) jk, he actually surprised me by having dinner all ready when I got home from work the other day--- he had even found a recipe and followed it! It was amazing. Hope you guys keep up this tradition, I think it is such a great idea.

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  6. Men can cook??
    Recipes come with more than 3 ingredients??
    You can go to the grocery store more than once a week??
    What is this world coming too????

    On a side note I too am curious if the cooking also comes with the cleaning up afterwards?

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  7. I have to be honest, my first thought before reading anything was "Peter must have done the shopping, look at all that soda" I think it is a great tradition. Ken is a really good cook too (I guess being a bachelor and trying to impress girls until you are 32 does that to a guy).

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  8. Way to go Peter. That is awesome and so sweet. I think that is a wonderful way to spend bonding time with Dad if he's up to it. And yeah for you too.

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  9. Yikes. That's scary. What if he makes major mistakes? Like uses sugar instead of HFCS? And that spinach in the fridge stuff? What if he actually puts that on your plates? You're so brave!

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  10. Now that's a tradition I could live with.

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  11. Dinner cooking? Does that mean what I thought it would mean? I think it is a great idea. Good memories for the kids and different meals. In your defense you cook wonderful meals and did a great job a such a tight budget.

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  12. I have to admit, I thought the same thing as Mom...something about Peter starting to take on more house hold responsibilities like cooking, then Charlotte would.....??? Hmmm...maybe not.

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  13. Ummmm...that is an awesome idea. Maybe Clay will figure out that about me sooner than later! Ha ha!!!

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  14. that is really exciting. If it tastes anything like pete's barbaque I'm in! hmm hmm good

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  15. I'm trying to think how I can bring this to Landon's attention with out making it sound like a chore. I love the whole Daddy child time. And maybe if we started doing this we would get something other them Mac and Cheese or Ramon for dinner. They are my two specials. Sometime I even put veggie in them and if your lucky a boiled egg might show up in your Roman. YUMMY!!!

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  16. I am trying to put you in that I follow your blog, but for some reason it will not let me plug you in. How do I follow your blog?? =0)

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  17. Cute picture! We do something similar. Each week one of the kids is in charge of dinner. Even the three-year old gets a night. He helps for a few minutes and runs off to play, but at least he has a bit of responsibility. I go ahead and make the menu and they pick which night they want. Eventually, I'll get them to help me plan the menu/shop/budget too. It's really great for me because it gives me a night off (sort of) and teaches the kids something they really need to know. Especially since we've been counseled to get our kids ready for their missions doing things just like this. Awesome!

    P.S. cinnamon sticks are really good in warm milk (if you like milk)

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  18. I slyly suggested this idea to Kent by retelling your post at dinner. The kids all got excited and thought it was a great idea. But then there was Kent. His reply: "Yeah, you should let the kids take turns helping you make dinner." I guess it would work better if he could be home before dinnertime.

    Two years ago his Valentine's gift to me was to make dinner each Sunday. Then he got a calling that conflicted with that time of day. Now he has too many good library books to get through. Ah well. It was nice while it lasted.

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  19. Claudia- from what I can tell, Peter would love to come eat at your house any day of the week.

    Kimberly- I will look up that cookbook. And it just takes a few years out of residency before they start to become human again.

    Word Girl- the extra shopping trip is expensive. I have tried to keep 1/5 of the grocery budget for his day.

    Jamie- good luck!

    Andrea- I'm not surprised, he was raised on the same menus as me. He cleans as he goes, but I usually wash the pans.

    Brenda- I like the world better this way ;)

    Kim- You know my husband well.

    Vee- I agree, it is one of the best presents ever.

    Twinlinebackers- he knows better. He leaves all those healthy ingredients off my plate. And he has too large a love for all thing HFCS to worry too much!

    Emma Jo- It is fantastic. The kids are really into it, too.

    Mom (& Brenda)- the deal for that included cooking all the meals. At first that is what I thought, too, and started to worry. But Peter assured me he didn't have that in mind at all. (to everyone else, the deal is if he takes over one major housecleaning chore- preferably cooking and shopping- I would consider having another baby. consider it fool proof birth control)

    Em- Heres to hoping he does! And I see you figured it out. Good job.


    Boyer fam- Yes he can.

    Jenn- we must use the same cookbook ;)

    Aimee- thankyou

    UCMama- my older kids can all cook at least one meal on their own. Comes in handy when I don't feel like cooking. And I will try the cinnamon sticks in milk.

    Mary- I am hoping that our tradition doesn't peter out. (HaHa I am so punny)

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