Never Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Half a dozen bikes in my front yard (interspersed with Nerf weaponry) can only mean one thing--the Pack has arrived.

I love these boys. They roam our neighborhood daily, moving from swimming at one house to shooting hoops at another to inventing Hunger Games-like adventures at another. And that's just one typical afternoon's activities.

To celebrate their early release for Spring Break, they decided their first big adventure would be playing Chopped.

On TV, the chefs each make three dishes (appetizer, main course, and dessert), but I limited them to two teams and one dish each. What would you guess they'd pick?

I was shocked when it wasn't dessert. I don't know what the required ingredients were, but when I walked into the kitchen, they were busy. They pulled out the rice cooker, egg noodles, canned chicken, and spices.

Here are the three judges (with a blond bomber in the middle) and the first dish.

I was astonished by what these kids--boys--can create. Masterpiece #1.

Here's the other team with the judges.

Hyrum is famous for mixing spices in sauces. The sauce on this chicken was so good that the boys kept dipping their fingers to clean out the saucepan. Masterpiece #2

Don't know who won, and I don't think the boys even care much about winning. They just enjoy the time together--and anytime they have free rein to eat, they do it.

Most moms don't trust their kitchens to their kids because they hate the mess left behind. The one caveat to this game is that everyone helps clean the kitchen when finished or they aren't allowed to play it again.

Two hours later--chopping, cooking, tasting, laughing, cleaning--and the boys had moved on to their next adventure, and my kitchen was mostly clean.

I love that these boys do stuff. They imagine stuff. They play stuff. Kids don't have enough opportunities like this any more.

I couldn't have picked better friends for my boys--so glad we live where we do.