Mason makes dinner

Another kid in the kitchen, another delicious dinner!

If this is your first time reading, you can check out the details of our kids in the kitchen endeavor here

and you can see how Corbin did here.

So after Corbin's go at a 'Sloppy Joe Pot Pie' (that was SO YUMMY), it was time for Mason to take a stab at his cooking skills.

After skimming through Mix and Match Mama's: Kids in the Kitchen cookbook, Mason chose her 'Sausage and Shells' recipe.

...we fell a tad bit victim to the 'panic shopping' that's been going on and couldn't find any shell noodles. So we bought Penne and renamed our recipe to 'Sausage and Tomato Pasta' - wahlah, improvising ;)

He followed the same 'flow'...

He started by reading through the entire recipe and retrieving all of his ingredients. 

After gathering his ingredients, he needed to 'prepare' them (or as he said, 'do something to them', ha!)

For Mason's dish, he needed to chop an onion, slice up a kielbasa, use a garlic press to mince garlic and measure out quite a few ingredients. 

Now here's the cool part...

This particularly member of our bunch isn't crazy about math... namely fractions (hi, hello, it's me, his new homeschooling teacher so I know these things ;))

...did you notice that he was having to cut the kielbasa into fourths?

...and the measuring cups?

Wahlah: A quick and simple math lesson.

As it turned out, Mason realized that math actually existed OUTSIDE of a workbook, and actually having to visually 'fraction' out the ingredients helped the information stick.

Mason did a great job delegating some of the work to his sous chef, Liam (like the super fun job of getting skin off of garlic cloves!)

After he 'prepped' his ingredients, it was time to add everything to the dutch oven.  He sauteed the onions, garlic, and kielbasa and added everything else according to the recipe completely on his own.

I've said it once and i'll say it again.

Measure. everything. separately. into. a bowl.

This gives them the opportunity to mess up without ruining their dish!

Mason accidentally poured a little too much red pepper flakes (yes, RED. PEPPER!) into the bowl and we were able to correct it before our mouths ignited into fire.

LET THEM MESS UP... in a controlled environment ;)

While his sauce simmered, he worked with Corbin (his 'table setter') on creating a beautiful table service.  He chose our pasta bowls on silver chargers.

...I give him an A+ on practicality ;)

Corbin and I worked together to create the first table setting and then he went on to set the rest of the table perfectly!

Now let me go ahead and tell on myself for being a doubting Thomas.

Out of the three recipes chosen by the boys, I was the LEAST excited about Mason's.  

Of course, Tyler and I agreed to put our game faces on and compliment all three of their dishes (and clean our plates...) but i'd be lying if I didn't say I was not. at. all. looking forward to eating Mason's dinner.

...something about the words 'Sausage and Shells' just made me think of cafeteria food.

....but oh man. OH MAN. It was DELICIOUS!! So delicious that all of us indulged in seconds and I absolutely cannot wait to make it again.

...Isn't it funny how things like that happen?

Mason served up, hands down, one of my new favorite pasta dishes, got to see MATH IN ACTION and really had to read and comprehend what the recipe was telling him to do, and then he had to do it!

Great, great, great teaching opportunities that sooo resonated with him.

You can find the recipe he used here -  HIGHLY recommend making it (because if my nine year old can make it, so can you!)

We'll wrap up with Liam's very unique dish soon!