Chef Naomi Night

For the last month, I've been following a blog about a Mom who recently accepted and admitted that she has been way too easy on her 4 kids and needs to start helping them grow up by not helping them so much. It piqued my interest because I often fear that I do too much for Naomi these days even though she is very capable of doing certain things on her own.

One of the things that this Mom has instituted is a policy where each kid prepares dinner one night a week. I thought this was a really neat idea. Naomi is a little on the young side to be cooking dinner, but I thought it would be fun to see what she came up with if given the opportunity.

I told her about the idea and she was excited about it. (Although honestly she feeds off my excitement on pretty much anything as long as I use just the right inflection and enthusiasm!) But regardless, she liked the idea of having "Chef Naomi Night". In fact, she has a book about things to be when you grow up and one of the professions happens to be a chef. She often claims that she wants to be a chef when she grows up, so here was her shot at it.

We started with the menu. I asked her what foods she would like to serve. I explained that she needed to serve protein, fruit, veggie and bread. She decided she wanted to make "sushi balls" (rice and tuna fish/chicken), which she had seen in her Highlights High Five magazine (thanks Mimi!!). She selected corn for the veggie, orange juice for the fruit and rolls for the bread. She also decided that she wanted ice cream for dessert. Then she immediately asked if we could have the ice cream first and then eat the rest. I told her, "Sure. You are in charge. "

Next, we headed to the grocery store to get the ingredients that we did not have at home. First up: corn. She opted out of corn-on-the-cob and instead wanted canned corn. When we got to the corn section, she pointed to the can with the Jolly Green Giant. Her first lesson: for some items, the store brand tastes the same and costs less. She was a little disappointed but agreed. Next we talked about what kind of rolls she wanted. She said she like the rolled up kind -- we got crescent rolls from the dairy section. Then we headed to the freezer section. We slowly walked along the display cases as she eyed all the boxes and cartons full of yummy treats. She had previously said that she wanted chocolate ice cream (because "Dad really really likes cho-co-late"). But then she said, "Stop, go back, go back! That's what I want! The blue box. " It was chocolate bars.

We had Chef Naomi Night last Sunday. After her nap (she usually sleeps until about 5p on the weekends), she began dinner preparations. I had already steamed the rice while she was napping so everything was ready to go. First she prepared the crescent rolls. She liked smashing the tube on the counter to make it pop open, pulling the dough apart and rolling them up. (She had trouble spacing the rolls out on the cookie sheet - I guess it was a hard concept for her to grasp.) Then she assembled the sushi balls by spooning rice into syran wrap-lined cups and adding chicken/tuna.

Next up: she tried opening the can of corn but our hand-crank can opener was a bit too stiff for her little hand muscles. She did the pouring from can to bowl. She did get to use her muscles to shake up the [heavy] orange juice though! (Thank goodness for sturdy plastic containers that don't break when slipped out of hand...) The final step was to set the table. I asked her to put plates, cups, silverware and napkins on the table. She did great, though it was funny because she asked, "What's silverware?" She only knew the terms fork, spoon and knife. From start to finish, she did a remarkable job and the meal tasted great!!

As for those chocolate bars...well, Jeff nixed the idea of eating them first. She was ok with it because they were worth the wait!