Grown Up Kids Playing With Food

It is funny how our minds linger around food even two days after Thanksgiving. I remember the famous saying "too many cooks spoil the broth" wondering if it could be any farther from the truth. Both of our sons always playaround with the leftover turkey. I let them because they are being resourceful and also because that gives me a break. Their creations are usually hearty and healthy sandwiches or stir fry cubed turkey that we could eat with rice. Even to this day when our son comes home from Hawaii, he shops for ingredients and makes dishes from scratch. We discover new methods and enjoy the food even more. Last week he emailed me saying that he made "Palak Munir". He was being funny, but we do have a dish called"Palak Panir" that is made from spinach (Palak) and Ricotta cheese (Panir). I have always substituted Ricotta cheese with American cheese. He was not satisfied with the idea. He not only used Ricotta cheese, but made the Ricotta cheese at home, using cheese cloth and lemon to break milk. It was amazing how making Ricotta from scratch can make the dish taste even more delicate. So let them try new things. They may seem like a handful at five or six years of age but that is the only way they will be innovative and creative. After all Toll House Cookies were a result of an experiment.