Cooking with Dad

No one thinks that Dad can cook.

He loves to be the asst. cook however. He just needs to know what he can do. Like many people that learn to cook he will not naturally take the initiatve. If you ask him to do things to help alongside of you he is more than willing.

Yesterday we were over at Morgan Hill. Bob and Mikie were at a class to learn "Flash". We came over to cook lunch and provide a little TLC and distraction while Mom's toe healed. It was much bigger of a thing that she had imagined. She is wearing a boot and is expected to be "off" it most of the day.

When she heard we were coming she ordered up chicken and polenta. I gathered up the polenta making materials and Sue and I headed over the hill.

We stopped at the Gilroy Costco and picked up the chicken there.. 99 cents a pound if you buy two.. We bought two so we had plenty of chicken to make.

We brought over the olives and the butter and the dried cheese. I thought that since we were going to be in the kitchen I might as well make another dish at the same time. We broughr over some huge potatoes and aome cheese and some left over ham. Dad opened cans for the chicken morengo.(4) and peeled the potatoes (3) and cut up the ham into bite one inch cubes. As I was making the poleta (he also stirred that) I used the food processor to slice that potatoes into even slices. He spread them out on the baking dish (we needed 2) and turned over the whole works with his hands so that it was ready to go into the oven. A mixture of corn starch and milk was poured on to the the potato mix first.

As we ate the polenta and chicken, the scalloped potatoes were baking along. We all had plenty to eat and I boxed up the left overs for lunches for the rest of the week.. Kelly would have been proud... (the exec chef who is down in Phoenix working on her disertation).

Mikie and Bob came back from the triumphant class and had a sample of the fruits of our labor. Dad seemed to like working with the project. I think that he experienced a couple of new skills in the process.