Princess Makes It Mondays

Princess has been asking for kitchen time.  Yes, you read that right - the teenager wants to do more cooking.

Now, I have cooked with my children a little bit - letting them stir and taste here and there, and of course lots of cookies over the years.  But this is getting more serious.  She's not that far from the age where she'll leave home and be on her own.  It's time to get a few dishes under her belt that she can fall back on.

We've decided as part of her "Home Management Skills 101" class for homeschool that she will now be responsible for preparing dinner on Monday nights. Bubba has an activity every other Monday night at a local pizza establishment, so it's usually just us girls for dinner.  That takes a lot of the pressure off - no feeding a whole starving family.  Besides, when she finds her "someone special" someday, she'll be cooking for two to start, and she'll need to know how to take an existing recipe and scale it back.

We're starting out on the easier side of things - crockpot cooking.  Crockpot dishes can also be easily translated into oven cooking.  Most have some type of slicing and dicing, and some even include browning meat first.  A crockpot can be used for main dishes, sides, desserts, and beverages.  They are the lifesavers of a busy family, especially our busy family.  Knowing how to use them and what to make will be lifesavers for her future family as well.

Check out the note below to see what's in our crockpot today, and check out Stephanie O'Dea's books Make It Fast, Cook It Slow and More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow - they are our "user's manuals" for our crockpots, and all the recipes in them can be made gluten free.

Happy Monday All!