Chef Nolan

Last Christmas, Nolan received a cookbook as a gift and ever since then he's really enjoyed helping me in the kitchen.  This summer, we decided to expand the project into something bigger - Nolan would plan, shop for, and prepare the entire meal for our family's Friday night dinner.  He paged through his cookbook, trying to find the perfect recipes that he thought looked tasty and met Mom's food group requirements of a main course, starch, vegetable, and dessert.  He decided on homemade fish sticks, homemade baked beans, a fresh looking pea soup, and apple spice cake for dessert.  We began that morning by reading through the recipes.  Since he's such a talented reader, he did it with VERY little help.  I helped him check for the ingredients in our pantry and he made a list of the things we needed to get at the grocery store. He was an excellent helper at the store - constantly checking his list and crossing things off as we found them.  He learned about how to check the prices per item and how to pick the best value.  It was one of our best shopping trips!

When we got home, it was time to tackle some of our ambitious menu.  We started with the cake, and aside from the knife work with the apples, he did all of it completely by himself, with very little guidance.  His enthusiasm continued throughout the rest of the afternoon, with each of the recipes...until we got to the fish.  While he considered it his own personal challenge to beat eggs as fast as Mom, he thought it was GROSS to dip the fish into the sticky eggs and then into the cornmeal batter.  Mom had to finish that part...  

His meal turned out absolutely delicious.  And the best part was that both the kids ate everything - Nolan because he made it and Livi because Nolan liked it!  The pea soup and baked beans will definitely go into our meal rotation and the apple spice cake was AWESOME.  The fish was the only thing that wasn't my favorite.  The cornmeal breading didn't seem to hold up and it didn't have that crispy texture that makes fish so delicious.  Nolan loved it, however, and gobbled up several helpings.  

This experience was so fun for the both of us.  He learned SO MUCH and used so many higher level thinking skills.  Plus, it was rewarding for him to have made something that whole family could enjoy.  I'm so proud of him and can't wait to do it again!