While our nine-year-old loves to prepare (but not eat) meals, if our thirteen-year-old had his way, he wouldn’t even pour his own cereal.  So, you can imagine our surprise when Thirteen came home one evening and announced that he had learned to make Eggs in a Basket in Family Consumer Science (the new name for Home Ec) and had enjoyed it to such a degree that he planned on making it for all of us for dinner.  As it became clear that his cooking plans were meant for that very evening, and as he was telling us all about said plans while I was plating up a supper I had prepared moments before, he agreed – with a slight air of disappointment – to postpone his cookery to a later date. 

Specifically, the next day.

“Do you still want to make dinner tonight, babes?”  I asked him as he ambled up from the basement, his phone in his hand.

“Oh, sure,” he said, with an air of casual surprise similar to how he’d react if asked if he wanted to come for a drive to the gas station.  “Do we have all of the ingredients?”

The ingredients, as communicated the evening prior, were bread and eggs.

“Yes,” I said.  I pointed to the counter, where I had set out a loaf of bread and a basket of eggs.

“Oh, okay,” he said.  “And I need a griddle or whatever, and a custard cup.”

“You can use the Blackstone; I’ll help you,” Kyle said, masking his glee – the glee because of his love of his Blackstone, and the mask because we’ve learned that teenagers are skeptical of things enjoyed by adults.

“Oh, okay,” he said.  He ambled away.

“I’d like you to start cooking in about ten minutes,” I called behind him.  No response.

Ten minutes later, he ambled back.

“You guys are really going to like this dinner,” he said.

“I feel confident we will,” I said.

He surveyed the loaf of bread, the basket of eggs, and his father, who was attempting to stand nonchalantly by with his Blackstone spatula.

“Oh, I need a custard cup.”

“What do you need the custard cup to do?”  I asked.

“To get the egg into the bread,” he said.

I pulled out a small bowl that had been used by Thirteen roughly 3,000 times to hold maple syrup for pancake dipping.

“Oh, yeah, that’s perfect,” Thirteen said, with his customary air of surprise.  He set the cup on the counter and walked to the couch, where his brother was minding his own business.  Thirteen sat on his brother.  Nine punched him in the leg.  Thirteen got up and walked back to the kitchen.

“Can I also get a bowl for the eggs?  You know, to carry them or whatever?”

“Sure,” I said.  I handed him a cereal bowl.  He counted aloud the number of people in the room – four – and then counted out seven eggs.

“You’re going to want two, and Dad’s going to want two, and I’m going to want at least two,” he said.  “But Nine doesn’t eat anything so he only gets one.”

“I don’t want any,” Nine said.  Thirteen took one egg out of the bowl.

Kyle and Thirteen went out to the garage to start up the Blackstone.  After a bit, Thirteen came in and sat on the couch (but not on his brother).  He watched TV for a few minutes and then got up, wordlessly, and went back out to the garage.

Nine called me over to the living room.

“What do you think of the smell of this candle?” he said, pointing to a candle burning on the side table.

“It smells very nice,” I said.

“Guess what it’s called,” he said.

“Winter pine,” I said, referring to the fact that it smelled like pine trees.

“Nope,” he said.

“Christmas pine?”  I said.  “Snow pine?  Green pine?  Pine-y pine?”

“Nope,” he said.  “Winter balsam!”

“So close,” I said.

“Not close at all,” Nine said.

“A balsam is a tree like a pine tree,” I said.

“No, it’s not,” Nine said, turning back to his show.

The chef and the chef’s assistant came back in the house with a steaming plate of Eggs in a Basket – which was a piece of toasted bread with the center cut out and filled with an sunnyside-up egg.  Thirteen spread butter on the Eggs in a Basket and put them on the plates I had set out.

“I advise eating them with salt and pepper,” he said.

“Good advice,” I said.

We dug in.  They were delicious.  As we ate, Thirteen told us a bit more about Family Consumer Science.

“We made chocolate chip cookies but we only got to eat three,” he said.  “We made about three dozen of them, though.”

“What happened to the rest?”  Kyle asked.

“The teachers ate them or whatever,” Thirteen said.

“That’s cookie injustice right there,” Kyle said.

“Maybe they didn’t want kids to eat a dozen cookies and go to their next class all sugared up and then skip their lunch,” I said, but apparently no one heard me.

While we were eating, Nine – who had been served a couple of hardboiled eggs in place of the Eggs in a Basket – was eyeing up my food.

“Can I try just a teeeeeeeny-tiny bite?”  He asked.  I gave him a teeeeeeeny-tiny bite.

“Can I have a bigger bite?”  He asked.  I gave him a bigger bite.

“Can I have my own Eggs in a Basket?”  He asked.

“Yes, you can,” Thirteen said, with regal generosity.  He went out the garage and made two more Eggs in a Basket – one for Nine, and one for himself.  Nine dug right in.

“You win the prize for being the only person to make a meal that Nine actually wants to eat,” Kyle told Thirteen.

“It’s because of the sourdough,” Nine said, pinching his fingers together like someone describing the details of a fine wine.  “The sourdough gives it a good hint.”

After dinner, I hugged Thirteen.

“Thank you for being an awesome fella,” I said.

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” he said.

“Maybe next time you can make chocolate chip cookies,” Kyle said.

“Yeah, sure,” he said with surprise, ambling back down to the basement.

---

The photo above is of the Eggs in a Basket in action.

---

This week on North Dakota Today we talked about Addison Pringle, my Nice Person of the Week, as well as a great organization growing local farmers and farms. (Valley News Live)

Grand Forks’ Robert Carter Jr. came to town via the Air Force and has now become a staple of the art community. (Grand Forks Herald)

The Bismarck Food Pantry and the Ministry on the Margins are now 17,000 food items richer thanks to a competition between state agencies. (KFYR TV)

The North Dakota Native American Hall of Fame has inducted four new members. (North Dakota Monitor)

Two former Wachter classmates have come together to author a book and create a publishing company. (KFYR TV)

---