I Survived Dinner

Bear likes chopping things.  Last night we had fish fingers, potato waffles and carrots with cumin.  The carrots were from the veg box.  To be honest, if bear continues with this interest in cooking, a veg box may be fine.  He will need to practice before he gets perfect, however.  First the carrots needed to be peeled and chopped - his favourite bit.  Bear is not speedy.  After a while I peeled and he chopped.  He did his best, but the carrots ended up far chunkier than the thin diagonal slices that the recipe requested.

Then bear helped me measure two tablespoons of oil, three tablespoons of water, two spoonfuls of lazy garlic (should have been four!), half a teaspoon of cumin and a pinch of paprika which had to been boiled together for a minute.  We timed this very carefully.  We don't currently have a kitchen timer, so we put a cup of water in the microwave and had it going for a minute.  Then the carrots and 300 ml of boiling water were added to the pan and left to simmer.  Due to the thickness of the slices, the carrots were a bit crunchier than I think the recipe envisaged, but they tasted awesome and bear was ever so proud.  You were supposed to simmer gently for 20-25 minutes, but they were cooked for a little longer.

He also whipped up the strawberry whip which we had for dessert as the mangoes weren't fit.  I am going to encourage him as much as I can this summer.  We will all benefit.

However I may need to start practising calm breathing as watching bear attack the carrots with a knife had me on pins all the way through.  I didn't say anything, of course, but I was glad when I could just leave the carrots to simmer.