Monday, May 10, 2010

Mother's Day Mac & Cheese

When you see a picture like this you know there's got to be a story, right?

My oldest daughter is almost 14. She is a budding cook, and for Mother's Day she sent me and my husband off for a long walk while she made dinner (you can see where this is going...). She had everything planned out--she even had my husband take her grocery shopping the night before so she'd have everything she needed.

Life is just busy, and Don and I don't have much free time to spend together, so our 90-minute walk was super nice and relaxing. On our way back to the car his cell phone rang. This is what I heard:

Don: Hello?
Alex talking
Don: Oh, man...
Alex talking
Don: Is there anything left to eat?
Alex talking.
Me: Is she OK? Does she need to get her aunt? Does she need help?
Don: OK, we'll be home in about 15-20 minutes. (hangs up the phone)
Me: Is she OK? Does she need to get her aunt? What happened?
Don: Something caught on fire. But she's got it.
Me: What does that mean?
Don: She's OK. She's got it.

So the kitchen-side of the story goes like this: Alex wanted to make Mac & Cheese for us for dinner. She planned, bought ingredients, and followed the recipe, which ends with browning the bread crumbs under the broiler. While she washed the dishes (isn't she a dear?) she smelled something burning. It was the bread crumbs. She quickly pulled the pan out of the oven, and the bread crumbs were on fire--with actual flames. In seconds her mind ran though all the things you can do with a kitchen fire and ended up blowing on them to put them out. Then she called us (see the above conversation). As you can imagine, she was totally deflated. I tried to cheer her up with hugs and tales of times I've blackened things, but she was pretty sad. Her first time totally solo in the kitchen and there were flames.

She wondered if we could still eat it. "Of course," I told her, "we just scrape off the burnt crumbs and it's good as new." I would have choked it down if I had to, but it was really very good, and I ate more than I should have. I was so proud of her! The meal (and the time with my husband) was a wonderful Mother's Day gift :)

And, before anyone berates me for posting this (for, you know, not wanting to embarrass her), the pictures and the post were her idea--She loves telling the story ;)

6 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing that story.

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  2. Aww what was sweet mother's day gesture - too bad it ended in flames but at least you were all still able to eat dinner - looks delicious!

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  3. Ahhh.....good job Alex! When I was a teenager I tried to make biscuits for my mom for Mother's Day and somehow I ended up adding cups of sugar instead of teaspoons. They ended up sugar cookies instead of biscuits.

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  4. What a trooper! I'm glad she can laugh about it now:) Mac n' cheese has been my favorite since I was a child, and I must say, that last photo looks mighty good!

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  5. That's so special. Burnt somehow makes it 100 times more endearing too.

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