Son Gets Souped Up About Cooking Dinner

  It suddenly occurred to me the other day: 4½-year-old Seth isn’t a toddler anymore – he’s a big boy.

After all, my son speaks in complete sentences when he isn’t too excited or mumbling. Seth cleans his room after being asked 30-40 times; can walk farther than many adults; and understands An Inconvenient Truth better than a certain Republican we all know.

The boy is even responsible enough to wield a knife as long as I lovingly guide it away from piercing my chest or from chopping off one of our fingers. And for more than three years, Seth has been aware that fire is dangerous; hmm, that’s better than the stereotypical male on commercial television. Sure, my boy likes chicken nuggets better than broccoli, but that’s true of 95 percent of Chicagoans.

Since Seth is so competent, I asked him something like this on Saturday, “Do you want to make soup for dinner with me tonight?”

“Yes! Can we make it with noodles?” Seth asked.

“Sure, you pick the other ingredients, too. Three vegetables minimum though.”

“OKAY!!!”

Can you see the genius of this? Instead of a bored boy mopping the floor with his body while at the grocery store – a recent development – Seth will be focused on an important mission.

Seth picked carrots, onions and bok choy, which he calls “salad.” He even tasted the bok choy raw, but made the best gross-out face you’ve ever seen. I explained that bok choy would taste better cooked. We agreed on a soy ginger broth, shrimp and tofu to round out the soup.

But the ingredient that interested Seth most were the noodles. After a lengthy and exasperating explanation that the noodles he wanted were actually part of an instant dinner kit, Seth finally relented and chose udon noodles. Why? Because they’re the soft kind at Japanese restaurants. A connoisseur of noodles that boy is.

Seth did great cutting up the vegetables but he cried a lot too. Those onions were seriously mean.

We sautéed said onions and carrots first, but I realized Seth’s face was a bit close to the crackling olive oil. That’s why he’s wearing those cool sunglasses in the photo. And Seth needed the glove because his bare arms came perilously close to the edges of the stock pot when he tried to stir the frying veggies and later the soup.

Though the soup came out perfect as far as me and my wife were concerned, Seth decided the carrots were too soft and wouldn’t eat them. Still he ate an enormous bowl of the broth – and all of the noodles.

Seth also loved getting praise for his work, which seemed to magnify in proportion through the course of the evening. By the end of the meal, in fact, dad’s role had been minimized to cutting up a couple of carrots while Seth did all the rest.

Huh, isn’t that why I left my Arizona job – because someone else took credit for my work? Don’t worry Seth, I won’t quit being your dad.

Now all I need to do is figure out what meal Seth is going to make next – we’ve done chocolate chip cookies, but he doesn’t like the way the batter feels on his fingers. Maybe a stir fry? Or a pizza? Chocolate cake? As long as we use chewy noodles, I suppose he’ll go for it.

Comments

[chip]

BK learned early on how to make mac and cheese (the awful kind with the orange powder; unfortunately for a while it was his favorite). Since then he's learned to make pancakes and caramel corn... CB is great at making all kinds of interesting and even healthy stuff. Good to get Seth thinking of cooking as fun at an early age!

[Pat]

Macho Men Unite.

Some of the best Father-Son bonding I've had with my son has occurred in the kitchen. There is something immensely satisfying about assembling ingredients, preparing them, cooking them, and finally eating them.

[brettdl]

Chip: Yeah, Seth can do powdered Mac Cheese, too. He makes it with my wife. And yeah, I intend to make good food part of Seth's life early on.

Pat: Yes, and I think it also helps build a sense of confidence and accomplishment that is important.

[MothersKnowBest]

Teach Seth the wonderful world of sandwiches. Soup is just flavored water. Sandwich > Soup. Good encouragement though.

[brettdl]

Thanks, I think having make sandwiches is a good idea, but I wouldn't put soup down so much. It was a staple of most societies for thousands of years.