Not pony pictures, but safe to read

I was going to post a bunch of pony pictures because I don't know about you, but cute animals is kind of all I can tolerate at the moment. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for cute ponies, because a child presented a topic for me to write about. Don't worry, it's not stressful.

Our non-stressful topic for the evening is cycling back to my decision to have my teens cook dinner one night a week. (It continues to go well, by the way.) What I didn't anticipate was the amount of self-volition it would engender. Last week, when we had some leftover barbecue beef, Y. suggested that we save it for her night to cook because she had been craving steamed buns (baozi) and she could use the meat for filling. Not only did she come up with her meal, but made very good use of some leftovers. Who's going to say no to that?

Then a few days ago, I get a text with a link to a recipe, and a note saying that G. would like to make it at some time. It was an ancient Roman chicken dish that G. had come across on a site devoted to history and cooking. G. made it tonight and it was very good. Plus it smelled heavenly as it was cooking. I was pretty impressed because the recipe instructions were... sparse. 

I think at this point I can cross off 'teach younger half of children to cook' off my list and just enjoy the fruits of their labors.