When I stepped
foot into my kitchen the other day, I should have immediately quarantined it as
a hazmat area. There appeared to be a cloud of smoke surrounding the entire
kitchen. As I inched closer to the counters, I could see a dusting of a white
powdery substance. It was also lightly spread across the stove, bottom cabinets
and the sink.
Was it flour
that was blurring my vision, powdered drink mix? I didn’t know. At one point I
thought I needed to clean the lenses of my eyeglasses. I began wiping the
counters, and then noticed a dried purple substance around the base of the
blender. It was instinct that caused me to tilt my head toward the ceiling to
make sure the blender had not exploded sending contents everywhere. Nothing
there.
Finally, a
little bit of understanding was coming into view. An empty box of baking soda
lay dormant on the kitchen table. It was a box that was full two days ago; only
a teaspoon had been used in a recipe. What happened? There was no one around to
ask, until…
My teen son
arrived home from school and I launched into a series of questions. Do you know
what happened in the kitchen? Why is there white stuff everywhere? Why didn’t
you clean it up?
“Ma, slow
down, I tried to clean it up. I wiped the stove.”
“No, you
smeared the stove and just redistributed the baking soda. Were you
experimenting with something?
“What if I
was making something for you? He said grinning.
“What…poison?”
My son had a
half day of school the day he was experimenting in the kitchen. He must have had
way too much time on his hands. It looked more like a mad scientist had visited
the kitchen, rather than a teen preparing something special. I never saw the
end product of what my son was making, nor do I know if it was something
edible.
What I did
learn from my son, was that it was “move up” day at school. This is a day where
all the students try out classes that they will take next year. My son will
have a cooking class. Something discussed in that brief encounter with his new
teacher must have caused him to come home and test his gourmet skills. I hope
she has warning labels on everything in her classroom.
Kids in the kitchen,
even if they’re teens need a little guidance.
What has
been your experience with kids and cooking?
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