One of the best things about having children is having someone to help with the minutiae of cooking. I made my world famous chicken tetrazinni tonight, you know, the one I was convinced would serve as my entrance exam to culinary school one day.
I had water simmering for pasta and was quartering mushrooms while keeping on eye on the chicken breasts I had poaching in some vegetable stock when Eldest Child entered the kitchen. “Here,” I said, handing her the knife (she’s 13!). “Can you finish quartering these for me please while I check the chicken?”
So she did. Score!
Five minutes later, I’m sauteeing the mushrooms and green onions in butter (LOTS of butter). I stir in flour to start my roux and turn to the cutting board to start dicing the cooked chicken. Middle Child comes in so I ask HIM to finish cutting up the chicken for me as I start stirring in more vegetable stock and evaporated milk (when I first learned how to make this dish, the recipe used all shelf stable ingredients. Onions, canned chicken, canned mushrooms…..evaporated milk instead of cream. I’ve changed it a lot over the years but for some reason, I’ve always kept the evaporated milk).
In goes the sherry and a big handful of parmesan. MC stirs in the chicken, I grind in some pepper and we’re done. THIS is comfort food to me.
Later, we walked down to the water to watch the fireworks over the Inner Harbor. The kids oohed and ahhed….and pouted because I wouldn’t let them play with sparklers. Seriously? What type of parental adult says to children, other than his own, “Hey, want to play with sparklers?” before checking with said children’s actual parent? Because that happened tonight. I mean, I’m sure the guy was really nice and all but just….thoughtless. I told the kids no, they could not play with sparklers because Youngest Child burnt herself with them last year (or maybe the year before, as she insists) and I knew that if they got hurt and I brought them home to ex-husband and the step-mother, I’d never hear the end of it. So I had to listen to YC begging and pleading for the rest of the evening to please please PLEASE let her flame with giant sticks of flame. FLAME STICKS OF DOOOOOOM!
Walking back home after the fireworks was pretty cool because all the tourists scurried like rats back to their cars and the kids and I just strutted back to our house. I was all, “That’s right. I’m a local. Recognize!”
Anyway, once back home, for dessert I made the Banana Chocolate Bars I found here. They were absolutely wonderful. The only hard part was waiting for them to cool off so we could eat ‘em. YC didn’t have any though. She claims to not like coconut. How this is possible I have no idea…..but I gave her some fudge that we got from Candy Kitchen last weekend so everyone was happy.
That’s it. Happy Fourth, y’all. I’m off to go watch iCarly with the kids before bedtime!
