Playing in the Kitchen
He helped me get the ingredients out. I’d been craving chocolate cake for a week. But he wasn’t interested in helping mix this time, so he started to play around in the family room. We used to mix together a lot more when he was younger. He even used to watch the Barefoot Contessa with me when he was two; he was mesmerized. But in the last couple of years, he’s lost interest in the kitchen. He’s six now and free time is all about Pokemon, Lego or soccer.
I gave him the beaters to lick; he did, and thought it tasted okay. I didn’t see him jumping for joy or trying to come back to the bowl. Very casually he went to the cupboard and started bringing over ingredients—a jar of peanut butter, a jar of honey, and a box of organic mini graham crackers. He wanted to make something of his own.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“It’s for what I want to make; when you’re done.” And that was enough for now. He went out to play ball in the garage.
A while later, after dinner actually, I offered him some chocolate cake for dessert. he jumped up and said, “Nah, I want to make my own creation.”
Betsy Beese Sheridan | Sterling, Virginia
