Learn to Cook Wednesday

We have fallen off the learn to cook Wednesday bandwagon for about 6 months now, but today in a desperate attempt to keep these boys busy (with something that didn't involve a needle and thread, or a screen) I asked James what he wanted to learn to cook and he said pudding. He has made his own chocolate, flour, sugar, etc. concoction that he calls pudding and has taught his brothers how as well and I told him we should learn to make pudding for real so he can see the difference. He finally took me up on the offer. At first he wanted to make vanilla pudding, but Seth and I convinced him to make butterscotch.  So, I made them don their aprons--merely for the cute factor--and wash their hands and we got started. They even learned how to separate egg yolks from the egg whites. We only lost two eggs in the process. Technically 1 1/2 eggs because after dropping an egg, James picked up the yolk and we used it. That's one way to separate an egg I guess. Haha. They measured out the ingredients and I did the cooking and stirring on the stove because little boy attention spans were done by then. After 20 minutes of stirring time we added the butter and vanilla and poured it into bowls and put it in the fridge. We made sure to lick the spoon and bowl...of course. 

Oh, I should also add that these little boys used the butter that they shook themselves yesterday. Seth found a little wooden copy of a butter churn in my painting box and wouldn't rest until he learned how to make butter from cream. So we got some heavy whipping cream and they shook their little containers until they had butter. At first they were discouraged that it was taking sooooo long so they stopped for a little while. And then they came back and we opened one up to reveal whipped cream. They got excited after that and kept shaking. So fun to see their delight at having made their own butter. I told them that long ago some kids would get butter on their bread for their birthday treat because that's all they had and usually the butter went to be sold. Maybe they'll remember that story. Maybe not. It was a fun activity anyways. Maybe I'll show them the easy way to make butter using my food processor one day...maybe. Haha. 

So after waiting four long hours for the pudding to cool and after eating their dinner, they got to try their pudding. It was super sweet and sooo yummy. Turns out all you need for butterscotch flavor is brown sugar and butter. So much tastier than the store bought mix. (or perhaps they've never had the store-bought butterscotch pudding so they wouldn't know any better) My favorite part was when Chris looked at me in awe and said, "The only crazy thing about this pudding is that it took 10 years for me to find out that we had everything we needed to make butterscotch pudding in our house the whole time. Why haven't we made it until now??" Hahahahaha! I think that means he really liked it. I'd say that if after 10 years we are still finding things out about each other and their talents, then I am so excited for the next 10 years. I was sure to give the boys most of the credit so they would be excited to learn to cook something else with me. They were beaming. I'd say our very unhealthy pudding was a great success. And I suppose a little more healthy than the store bought mix because it didn't have any preservatives??