Cooking with kids.

I posted this first photo as part of my 365 project.  I thought I would fill in the rest of the story...

So that was on Sunday, January 30th.  I was sick in bed, the kids were going stir crazy from being stuck inside, we had just got through the non-event that was TC Anthony and the boys decided that they didn't need a nap, they needed to cook.  Sultanas, 2 types of pasta and a banana... all the ingredients for a yummy lunch.  I can't remember what triggered my brain to wake up and think something was wrong but I leapt out of bed (no easy feat when you've barely moved for days) and went to find them cooking their own lunch.  They were going to try cooking it but remembered that they weren't allowed to use the stove by themselves.  Thank goodness that part of the "no cooking without mummy" lesson was absorbed.

Fast forward to Friday, February 4th... We are coming up fast on 48hours without power thanks to TC Yasi.

In the middle of summer.

With so much rain that we couldn't even open any windows.

We *think* we have everyone down for a nap, in spite of the oppressive heat and humidity.

We fall into a restless sleep, exhausted after a cleaning up the trashed yard and cubby house but too hot to sleep properly.

Hours pass.

I hear a noise...

Bad photo, I think my rage was stopping me from holding the camera still

Keep in mind this is 4 days after the first cooking episode.  Four short days after my eyes bulged, my head spun in circles and steam came out of my ears.  Four days since they last got in trouble for helping themselves to stuff from the pantry.  This time there is about a kilo of sugar, a cup or so of flour, cannelloni tubes, soup pasta, 1/2 a jar of chocolate spread, fruit straps, sultanas... I can't remember what else.

Would you like to see it from a different angle?

I'll give them credit for creativity.  Filling the cannelloni tubes with chocolate spread and sugar actually seems rather appealing but that doesn't mean you should go ahead and try it!  Though all that sugar spilt on the carpet and no electricity to vacuum it up... bad, very very bad.  Moving out that night for almost a week in other peoples houses while we waited for the ants to clean it up for us electricity to come back on so we could clean it up properly wasn't such a bad thing.

I'm hoping at least one of them ends up as a fantastic chef one day so I can write this off as learning to experiment with ingredients rather than disobedience, defiance, mess and general naughtiness.