The Joy of Cooking

I remember the days when my 4 year-old son Darien (now 6), used to clamor to cook in the kitchen. When his brother was born a year later, our cooking times together went out the window. As any busy parent of an infant knows there are few meals that require real preparation cooked the first year. It's always nice to dream about cooking that delicious Paella that you cooked back in the day when you were dating your partner or even on special occasions after your first child was born. But now? Not happening.

So the other day I actually had put Elian (now 18 months) down for a late afternoon nap and Darien wanted to "watch something." But I had other plans.... In no time we were in the kitchen, me chopping, Darien placing potatoes in the bottom of a roasting pan, talking about onions and why they make our eyes water, and rubbing a chicken with salt and rosemary. Afterwards Darien decided that he wanted to work on making a comic book and "watching something" wasn't mentioned again (at least not for the rest of the evening.)