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The family that cooks together...eats together!

A few weeks ago Jeff mentioned it would be fun if we, as a family, cooked dinner together one night.  All of us.  WHAT!?!!?  Do I look like I am having that much fun in the kitchen each evening?  Do you really have nothing else to do that you have to invade my space and join me in this necessary evil called 'cooking dinner'?!?!?!  If you've never seen Jeff in the kitchen before, it is a sight to behold.  He likes to have everything he needs within reach.  This goes for pans, pots, mixing bowls, cooking utensils, measuring spoons/cups, knives, and pretty much everything you find the fridge and pantry.  Whether or not he will actually use it, it is as close to him as possible.  Most of the time he will find use for it all.  It becomes an impressive display how one meal can use so many pots, pans and mixing spoons.

I tried hard to let his suggestion of us all cooking together go in one ear and out the other. My goal is to find things to make for dinner each night that can be done as efficiently as possible.  In and out.  I am not there to linger.  I've got too many things to do!

We had a snow day not too long ago that kept us stuck in the house together all day long.  I had on the calendar to make Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner.  I wanted to put something with it as a side (besides french bread) and decided it was time to get the family involved in making dinner.  Yes, I was going to go there and fulfill Jeff's idea of a good time.  The kids and Jeff were going to make homemade potato chips.

I had been to a Pampered Chef party at a friends house back in January.  I saw this really cool gadget that made amazingly delicious, crispy potato chips (with no oil!) in the microwave.  The only thing you needed was a potato and salt. At the Pampered Chef party I had also ordered an easy slicer to help make the potatoes as thin as they needed to be for chips.

I pulled out the slicer, the special trays to microwave the potatoes and got my Toppall team to work.  Each person had a job.  Ian sliced the potatoes, Jeff patted the potatoes dry to absorb any liquid on them, and Sam salted and placed them on the trays.  The potato chip making ran like a well-oiled machine.  Each batch took exactly 3 minutes, 30 seconds to microwave.  It took about 6 batches before we all started telling each other to stop eating them as soon as they cooked and wait until we sat down for dinner.  They were so tasty and we were all starving from being outside shoveling snow.  It was hard not to devour them as soon as the microwave dinged.  Finally, Jeff, Ian and I started showing restraint.  Sam however, decided it was necessary to taste test each batch.  We were losing too many to quality control. 

Dare I say it?  We were having fun.  Jeff, Ian and Sam had their own thing going on and I was busy making the soup.  We were all in the kitchen cooking together.  It actually worked out well.  Who thought that was possible?  Well, Jeff did.  Guess what?  He was right. Yes, I am admitting it.  He was right.

Ian slicing the potato.



Sam putting the potatoes on the tray.

Yummy potato chips!!

They don't last long in our house.