Eating In

We all know how television has seriously damaged reading. Not as much as email has destroyed letter writing, mind you, but the effects are widespread. The TV is on in the average American household for an average of five hours per day; when was the last time anyone read a book for five hours in one day? In much the same way, going out to eat has had a crushing effect on cooking--especially among young people.

Before we could all afford (or think we can afford) to eat out so frequently, home cooking was the norm. Children (especially girls) learned to cook by working with their mothers in the kitchen. But between going out and nukeable 'wave cuisine, young people today can barely open a can, much less cook a meal from scratch. So it was bound to happen. The natural consequence of our self-imposed home dining had to stir the creativity that had lain dormant during our restaurant-hopping days.

The older children love to cook, and are getting pretty good at it. Elisabeth makes a Caesar Salad that is to die for. She makes her own dressing, and even makes the croûtons from scratch. Erik is getting into the act too:

"What, no cookies?" Erik moaned.
"Make 'em yourself!"
"Ok, I will"

Chef Erik displays his creati

And he did. By himself, Erik baked up a batch of a few dozen chocolate chip cookies. They were pretty good! He was very pleased with the result. Imagine that: you can have cookies any time you want, without driving to the store. One problem: warm cookies go even faster than warm bread. Most of Erik's batch didn't even get to cool.

The little girls are always eager to pitch in with the cooking too. They're good at mixing, stirring, and, with some careful supervision, chopping. Oh yes, and of course eating. They're always enthusiastic about that.