As Easy as Boiling Water

One thing I've noticed is that cooking with kids is not for the faint of heart. 

This week, I decided to push the limits a bit and asked my son to boil the noodles for our classic mac and cheese (see mac and cheese post for the recipe) before I got home from work.  We were going to be pressed for time and having that step out of the way would help get us to our evening class on time.

I gave him instructions over the phone.

"Do you know what to do?"

"Yeah, I boil the water then add the noodles."

"Right, and cook them as long as the package says.  The whole box."

"Okay."

"Start at 4:30, okay?"

"Okay."

At 4:35, my phone rings.  Not good.  "Uh, mom?  The stove is smoking and I don't want the smoke alarm to go off!"

"Is it still smoking?"

"No, I turned it off because I don't want the smoke alarm to go off."

"It won't.  It's smoking because I cleaned the stove.  It'll stop in about 30 seconds.  If it doesn't, turn it off and wait until I get home." (clearly, it is unusual for me to have just cleaned the stove...)

"But will the alarm go off?"  (clearly, he does NOT want the alarm to go off!)

"It won't."

"Okay."

So, for the next twenty minutes, the phone does not ring and I am having visions of the house catching on fire.  It doesn't help that I work next to a fire station and there must have been a fire somewhere becuase the truck went out, lights flashing, sirens blaring.  I was about to pack up and leave when the phone rang again.

"The noodles are done.  What do I do now?"

"Everything's okay?"

"Yeah, mom."

"Did you take them out of the water?"

"Uh, no."

"You know where the colander is, right...."

When I got home shortly thereafter (house still standing, everything as it should be), this was in the sink:

Beautiful.

We ate dinner, had the rest of our evening as planned and it was good.  As we ate, my son proudly announced that it was really good.  And he'd help make it. 

I'm left wondering if I should clean the stove more or less often.....