Alex the Chef

I've always thought of Alex as being very creative, but lately he seems to be carrying it to a whole new level. From making his 3-dimensional paper animals, to wanting to build a house he could live in, in our backyard (with running water, I might add), he has just been amazing us. Poor thing has been so frustrated by some of the things he's wanted to do that Bill and I have had to say no to. He just doesn't understand why we won't let him make a video game (player and games). We've tried explaining to him that we don't have the plastic, electronics, etc. necessary to build it. But he huffs and puffs and sticks out his bottom lip at us, anyway. He's also asked to build a real rocket with metal. Again, no metal or means to make a real rocket. The model rockets we made last week did seem to help satisfy that request, however, though he was a bit confused by the lack of metal on our models.

So I was thankful this evening that his latest idea I could actually allow. He came to me and said he wanted to make something he could eat. I said maybe, depending on what he wanted to make (I was really scared of what he had in mind). He said he wanted to use carrots, apples, and cheese. Well, it didn't sound very appetizing, but I said okay. He asked to use my Pampered Chef chopper to chop up the carrots and apples, which was definitely the only option since a real knife was out of the question. I had him place the half-chopped (have you ever tried using that chopper?) mixture into a dish, and then he sprinkled some shredded cheese on top. Then we placed the lid on top and put it in the oven for awhile. Of course, the cheese melted and the apples cooked rather quickly, but the carrots were still rather crisp. Alex didn't care. He said it was done and that it looked delicious. And if you didn't know what it was, it did look somewhat appetizing. So I served it up to all three kids with their dinner. Upon seeing the funny expression on Alex's face as he took the first bite, I asked him if he liked it. Immediately he said, "Yes, it's very good." And then after eating much of his other food and not once touching his own recipe, he looked at me and said, "Actually, it's not very good." I think that was the consensus among all who tried it. He informed me that all it needed was small marshmallows on top... Um... Yeah... I'm sure that would fix it. It will be interesting to see what Chef Alex comes up with next!