Worse than a hair in your chicken...

I may not be raising a houseful of future chefs but I do like to humor myself every now and then into thinking that at the very least they will all be able to put a complete meal on the table, preferably one that did not originate in a box. So, to harken us closer to that goal, every 15 year old in the house is given "planning and preparing a week's worth of meals" as one of their missions to accomplish. Not completing any of the mission within 365 days means a delay in being driven to PennDOT for that coveted permit test. This doesn't mean that I approve of their total meal plan but usually we can come to some sort of compromise in favorite meals vs. varied and healthy. Example: This week's child tried to get 3 chicken meals by me before being vetoed. So, tonight's Buffalo Chicken Tacos is more on the favorite side. That's okay. As long as you make it correctly. And as long as we're not having chicken again tomorrow night.

And then this.

I will not embarrass the poor child by giving away names. That would be rude and unconscionable.

I will, however, tell you that the directions were simple: Put the chicken in the crockpot. Cover with 1 cup Ranch dressing and 1 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce. Cube 16 oz. of cream cheese and put the cubes on top of the chicken and sauce mixture. I will admit to not supervising sufficiently as I thought the directions were self-explanatory.

However, I have learned my lesson. Next time, I will add "After removing the white juice-soaking pad from the bottom of the chicken," in front of the part about putting the chicken in the crockpot. And tonight, when said child comes home from school, we will discuss the difference between cubes and bricks.

(Lest you think that our children only help in the kitchen one week of their lives, let me assure you that there are a lot of sous-chefs in our house. In fact, every night of the week each child is either helping to prepare the meal or to clean up the meal. This means that there is often a fight to see who can ask first to help prepare so that they don't have to help clean up. On the other hand, some children have chosen not to help on a regular basis. And as you have seen, that is a good thing.)

Edited to add: If it's true that you learn something new everyday, this child is going to reach the week's quota by the end of this meal. After being set straight on cubes vs. bricks and chicken juice pads, this child also learned that lettuce does not grow in tiny little taco-ready pieces. Who knew that they were big leaves and if you wanted smaller pieces you needed to cut or tear them?