Cooking with Boys

I love having boys,when it comes to the kitchen it can be an interesting place.

My oldest, Brock, volunteered to bring a treat to school for a class project. He LOVES Merry Berry Cheese Bars. He wanted to make a double batch. One for home and and 'most' of one for school.

After digging out the recipe and grabbing the ingredients he decided he needed to cut his finger nails. (??) Ok. I started to measure it out.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to be like or have creative tendancies similar to Martha Stewart or Rachel Ray. I am a RACHEL but MY homemaker skills include ordering take out with swift speed and endurance. Not 30 minute meals from scratch.

So, Brock had a nice chuckle when I went to measure out the oatmeal and realized the pampered chef measuring cup I was using was way narrow and taller than my arms could handle. ..SOOOO, I had my container of oatmeal in my right arm, trying to pour, while holding my measureing cup thing in my left. Shortly after begining, I gave up on the 'accuracy' part of the measuring process and opted for the guess-tamate version. He laughed at me. No worries here! It's still food, not rocket science. Right? (lol)

After hanging out at the table, cutting his finger nails, I asked him to bring me my glass-o-water. I had just finished working out and was a bit parched. He picked it up and inspected it for a minute.

I laughed. I thought he was looking for food particles to tell me are somehow in there. Nope. He was looking for his FINGERNAILS. When he told me that I laughed. WHAT??? He smiled, "Well it was in the area where I was cutting my nails and wanted to make sure I didn't get any in there."

What a sweet kid. ha.ha.

I asked him to open up the cream cheese.

Question: Can I see a show of hands if you know the correct way to open up cream cheese?

Ok. so, not everyone realizes to READ the word 'OPEN' on the silver package. Sorry. But, to enlighten those of you who do not know, you can quite easily open them with out a scissors by peeling back the silver seams. Really!

My germ obbsessive young many slightly debated the best way to 'disinfect' the scissors after getting some cream cheese on it. Don't worry he is all good now.

After telling him to YES REMOVE THAT WRAPPER BEFORE MELTING THE BUTTER, he mastered that task!

Next he had to blend the cream cheese until fluffy. He was a bit scared of using 'excessive' speed on the blender. Not anymore!

When he was digging out the second 9 x13 pan he noticed some 'stuff' that needed to be cleaned off, so I quickly washed it while he finished up the ingredients.

While loading the second one into the oven, water from washing the dish began to sizzle. He paused a bit while causiously pushing it in, as to NOT burn himself. The sound made him think of the way his skin would sound touching the oven, he said.

Comforting.

So, The desserts eventually made there way out of the oven, and most of one went to school. The other pan? Didn't last 20 hours.

I think I got half of one piece. It's hard to tell, since it was crumbs.

: )