Sunday, February 03, 2008

Roux the Day

Barnacle Boy has been working hard to master a kid basic: mac and cheese. Not in the microwave, not from a box. A recipe that begins with butter and flour and his favorite twisty pasta boiling away. He soloed this weekend, no mom hovering over the stove, whisk in hand ready to rescue a sauce gone lumpy, not even a mom acting as his sous chef. I'm emptying the dishwasher on the other side of the kitchen, oblivious to the start of the project. "Mom, is this roux?" Huh? "Uh, yes it is. Do you know what roux is?" "A mixture of flour and butter used to thicken a sauce or soup." This said with the cadence of a Merriam-Websters special, but he is correct. "Where did you learn about roux?" iCarly - which he gets on iTunes!

For the record, his sauce was a velvety concoction, a heavenly choice on a rainy day.

5 comments:

  1. any food someone else cooks always tastes better than what I cook! Sounds like he is a cook in the making!

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  2. Oh, how cool. Sounds delish and it must be really exciting to see him soar.

    During our prayer time last night Nicholas surprised and delighted me by setting a Lenten intention to do more cooking -- sometimes solo and sometimes together, as tonight when I pick him up early from school so we can make a bread and cheese souffle from More-With-Less. Then of course Katie wanted to get picked up early another day for her turn to cook with Mom...but it's such a joy.

    Blessings and strength if you're fasting today; that is one thing I do not miss in itself, as for various reasons it is not spiritually fruitful for me except in very limited/adapted forms. But I do miss the community building aspect of it. Matt and I were up several hours before breakfast, as it turned out, because we all went together to the Ash Wednesday Eucharist at the Episcopal parish we have recently discovered. And getting them fed and dressed for school and dropped off took precedence. Very joyful to have that together even with the hassles, as well as the Mardi Gras party last night--first for us as a family on both counts, pretty much.

    Happy Lent!

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  3. Barnacle Boy is an amazing cook...his triumph this week was yeast biscuits. Still warm when I got home from work...

    I agree, Cathy, food that I don't have to make (or shop for, or think about!) always tastes great.

    And Mother Laura...what a wonderful choice of a discipline (in it's best sense, a time of teaching) for Lent for Nicholas (and you!!!)

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  4. Thanks, Michelle. He actually didn't verbalize it as Lenten but it happened right at that time and came out of prayer. And it fit really well with my own recent shift to much simpler shopping and cooking, which started a bit before Lent but fits right in--not to mention I am always looking for good time together. So I interpreted it that way and should probably check that out with him....

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  5. Wow. (I'm always so impressed with your kids.) - Stasa

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