Can you do your job without the right tools?

    For quite some time, the display of our oven had been partly not working, in that a few of the LEDs were burnt out.  It hadn't been bothering me at all, but it had been bothering Brett, and he decided to try to fix it several days ago.  That didn't work out- several times over.  After the oven stopped working partway through my baking soething today, we decided that it reached the tipping point at which the cost of repairing it.would reach the cost of replacing it. Brett ordered a new range for us which should be delivered early in the week.
   Now- to function at my job without a necessary tool.  How will I do that?  "Muddling" is the word, for sure.  I had to shift supper plans for at least tonight and probably a few more nights to come.  More than that, I can't bake anything properly for Brett's birthday (tomorrow) and it'll mean buying a birthday cake.  To have to buy a cake is an injury to my pride!  I suppose there may be some lesson the Lord has there for me about pride....
  The right tool is necessary for any job.  Muddling along without the right tool, or with the wrong tool, is pretty challenging!

What are your most needed tools for your job?

Kids cooking- Sandwiches

   Sandwiches can be simple or complex, and they can be a good starting point for children.  My five-year-old son helped last night in fixing BLTS for supper.  He really did a large part of making them himself.
   Bread: my husband uses a bread machine to keep us in very good bread.  This particular loaf got a bit mangled, so it made for some odd-shaped pieces and awkward shaped sandwiches.  Nevertheless they tasted good!
   Bacon:  we used some thick-cut bacon and broke it in little pieces, because it can be hard to keep bacon *in* a BLT.  I supervised while Joshua was able to turn the bacon while it cooked in the skillet.
  Lettuce- flat pieces of lettuce went on the bread first.
  Tomatoes- I cut the tomatoes in half and then cut off a little slice so it would sit flat on the cutting board.  AFter that, Joshua was able to slice them the rest of the way.
   When all was said and done, as simple a meal as the sandwiches were, they were very good.  I was glad that we could say that Joshua got at least half of the credit for fixing them!

Learning to cook

    Josie (age 8) is of course slowly learning to cook.  She's setting up eggs to hard-cook (as I type this) to make egg-salad boats for supper.   Yes, the recipe is written out in one of our vintage Junior Cookbooks (namely the 1963 version.)  In fact, it's shown with a photograph of one made up with a paper sail on a toothpick stuck in!  How cute is that?
   Josie did have to be reminded as to the procedure for hard-cooking eggs, but if it's frequent enough, she'll have it down in no time.  I've already turned over to her the responsibility for oatmeal about twice a week,  cornbread, and preparing a lot of the vegetables.   She knows how to cream butter and sugar for baking. 
   Like many things, cooking is fairly easily learnt, if learnt gradually and in building block steps over time.  It's misguided for people to criticize teaching girls to cook as "sexist" or "stereotypical", because even if you reject Biblical gender roles, someone  has to cook! If it isn't the woman in a home, then it's either the man, or the family is left to rely on prepared foods and restaurant meals which are expensive and not nutritionally good. 
   Certainly boys can, and perhaps ought, to learn plenty of cooking.  To my boys, there's nothing odd about it to see a man cook. My husband only does a little bit, but my father-in-law does almost all their family's cooking- very well indeed.  My own father cooks some of the time (he fixes supper on the weekends, an arrangement that my parents have had for their entire forty-year marriage, and a good example of delegating something however it works for you!).  Also, a little more peripherally, one of my best friends is a man who is a professional chef. 
   What have your children learnt to cook?