Cooking Up Traditions

I babysit my grands every Tuesday night so Jaci can go to her creative movement and Tyler can attend the Ulysses book group. I race from Akron back to Youngstown, pick up the babes, and head to a restaurant to dinner. We have a lovely time together. They catch me up on their schoolday and give me the scoop on all their friends. I get my Grandma Fix, and all is well.

Our restaurant norm is Denny's, but last night their choice was Bob Evan's. When we got out of the car at Bob Evan's, I realized my purse was missing. In my haste to get to Youngstown, I had left my purse—including all IDs, credit cards, and cash—at the office. Oops.

I told them we'd have to go home and have scrambled eggs for dinner, as I had no way to pay for dinner. They willingly and happily got back in the car and we headed to my house. Fortunately, I had been grocery shopping recently—Flash: I hate grocery shopping. My refrigerator was stocked sufficiently so I could sate their appetites with scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, toast, applesauce, yogurt, and these fabulous dark chocolate organic cookies that I found at Giant Eagle. Are you impressed?

When I took them back to their house to put them to bed, Boston looked at me and said, "We should eat at home every week." Then, his little brain cogs turning, he laid out a whole schedule of what nights we would go out, what nights we would eat in, what we'd have for dinner, what we'd have for breakfast on sleepover nights, and what nights we'd decide whether to go out or stay in.

They don't mind my lame cooking! They don't judge the quality of my kitchen efforts! They're perfectly happy with cuisine that Le Cordon Bleu or New England Culinary Institute or Julia Child would deem sub-edible!

You think I can find enough things to feed them that will come out of my kitchen in a format that won't cause them to gag?

More importantly, what was there in those moments at home around my dining table that grabbed his imagination and made him feel that environment was better than "Grand Slam with no pancakes" and "Oreo Sundae with no whipped cream" at Denny's?

Whatever caused this attitude adjustment, my credit card appreciates the relief it's going to feel.

Cooking? I'm equal to the challenge!