A Cooking Class With Mama

Step 1. Choose a recipe (Stone Soup from My First Cookbook by Paula Deen)Step 2. Make a list and go shopping. Insist that you absolutely need a cheap plastic ring from those blasted toy dispensers. Promise to pay mama back from your savings.

Step 3. Peel carrots. Actually, peeling was easier with the carrot lying horizontally on the board, not held up like in this picture. Eat some.

Step 4. Try to peel potatoes. Realize that this is too hard and give them to mama. Then cut them into smaller pieces with a sharp knife and tell mama not to worry.

Step 5. Call papa while mama is getting meat out of the boiling soup and opens cans of beans, corn and tomatoes. Explain proudly that you are cooking dinner and ask him to hurry up home.

Step 6. Stir soup. Look proud. Set the table and get ready to eat. Forget one important step – cleaning up. Ask to do it every Friday from now on.