The Kids Cook Monday Two. Morgan Take One.

It’s official.

I’m a genius.

I was going to say, ‘We had our first real Kids Cook Monday’, but then my mind quickly ran back over all my predictions in the first two entries about it and I realized what I’ve always known:

I’m a genius.

I was right about everything, as usual.

When I predicted Morgan would actually like Kids Cook? I was right. When I predicted the kids would agree on nothing? I was right. When I predicted Morgan would run straight to her dream mom, The Pioneer Woman for a recipe? I was right. (correction: she claims PW is not her dream mom, PW is her dream life. good grief, it’s worse than I thought.)

Last Monday, the kids didn’t have school. I pretty much give up trying to get any “work-work” done when they are home. It is not their faults. Well, it is mostly not their faults. It’s just too chaotic and distracting for me to work. So I do things that I have been meaning to do for a while, but don’t require fits of concentration.

Like put the remaining basement level Christmas decorations away. And research the distance of the parallel parking spot that Morgan will have to wedge the Suburban into for her driver’s test in a couple weeks.

Oh, why do I lie?

She’s taking the test in Dave’s Cherokee.

But isn’t it gleefully funny to imagine her parallel parking the Suburban? (By the way, the parallel parking size is somewhere around 8 feet wide by 24 feet long, if you must know.)

Then I went outside and dug those dimensions into a snowbank and marked the corners with soccer field flags.

I seriously did that. Somewhere into the second half hour, I realized there really is something terribly wrong with me and my priorities. Shouldn’t she be the one to be doing this?

And she still hasn’t used it. But no one’s going to point the finger at me when she doesn’t pass! Nevermind the fact that I never let her drive anywhere because I’m always so late, right?

Anyway, our Monday was passing by fairly uneventfully and I was eager to give the kids some direction other than Youtube and Netflix, so I said (rather, I yelled) into the next room “YOU’RE COOKING TONIGHT.”

I didn’t hear a peep.

Low and behold a link popped up in my email from Morgan directing me to — wonder of wonders — the cream and cheese wizard of the lower 50, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/quesadillas-de-camarones/

Who was I to complain.

Well of course I complained, but not about the recipe. I was complaining because she actually — get this — expected me to drive to the grocery store! Can you imagine? …did she think my hard and fast no-going-to-the-store-for-items-we-are-missing rule would fly out the window with Kids Cook Mondays?

But she can be real persistent and whiny .

(So I called Dave and made him go to the grocery store on his way home.)

Obviously and as usual, Charlie had no idea what was going on around him. He was busy building a robot that would sense movement and simultaneously shoot a ball at you while saying, “Sorry.” When he got wind of the recipe Morgan wanted to cook, he immediately started complaining. There is no solution to this. I simply point it out to make everyone with bickering kids feel better.

I quickly laid the Kids Cook ground rules that I had previously given no thought to before today: One kid is the boss, picks the recipe and does most of the work. The other one is their helper/grunt/line cook. I will, no doubt, come to regret these rules that will be thrown in my face as the weeks fly by, but it is what it is. My destiny has been set.

Morgan, being the quicker of the two, quickly grasped the concept and put Charlie to work at the sink peeling the legs off the frozen shrimp.

I thought he was going to faint.

It was about that time that I remembered I was supposed to be at my Book Club in the city in about an hour. Again, yes, this seriously happened. I do this type of thing all the time. I completely space out the places I am supposed to be. And really, I couldn’t even begin to make this stuff up.

BUMMER! I would miss the circus.

I handed the camera over to Dave and kids and took my leave:

Morgan wasn’t very happy about the green enchilada sauce. (I forgot to tell Dave to get red.) I was just happy I had any at all! (And that he didn’t cave in to the princess and go buy the red stuff.)

I’m pretty sure the line cook set the table…

And there they are, in all their glory. (I did not take these pictures, or they would surely look more delectable.) I did, however, have the left overs the next day and I gotta say: they were amazing!  Good job Morgan!

And I’ve got a great idea for next year’s resolution: Kids Blog Mondays. If I can get them doing it all? That would be so awesome. (Say that last line with the voice of Kevin from The Office and it goes from being lame to being funny. I promise.)