Comfort Food

Lately I've been trying to encourage Nathan to help out in the kitchen. He seems to get a kick out of it, and I enjoy sharing that with him. Usually he's been my assistant, breaking eggs, pouring in ingredients, etc. Sometimes he's my observer. I've been wanting to boost his confidence a bit in the kitchen, so I figured I would give a main course a try.

I called Nathan into the kitchen, and told him I wanted him to help me with dinner. He put aside his Nintendo DS (now that's monumental!) and rushed to my aide. He's always so willing to help.

This time, I didn't premeasure anything. I picked an easy meal and just told him, step by step, how to make it. You can't get much easier than meatloaf. And with my handy dandy KitchenAid mixer, I didn't even have to worry about sensory issues ("it feels icky!"), since the mixer does all the work. He loves using that mixer! (So do I!) I just told him what we needed, how much, and showed him where to find the measuring cups and such. There isn't much to meatloaf, so it wasn't a big hassle or anything. A few steps, and then I popped it into the oven.

After we were all done, and I was pulling the meatloaf out of the oven, I made a point of thanking him. He asked, "For what?"

I answered, "For making dinner."

His eyes got huge. He didn't realize that he'd made the dinner. He thought he was just giving Mom a hand. "I made dinner?!"

"Well sure! You got everything out. You measured it. You put it in the pan. The only thing I did was take it in and out of the oven. You did it all. Pretty easy stuff, huh?"

His jaw just about hit the floor. "Yeah!" He was so excited, and so proud! And so was I! He even ate TWO meatloaf sandwiches.

And it was the best tasting meatloaf I ever had.