I am the cooking merit badge counselor for my son's Boy Scout Troop. While you might wonder what a Boy Scout needs to know about cooking other than how to start a fire and cook a hot dog, think about the number one advice women have for their single guy friends - cook her a meal. Every man should have two or three go-to meals he can cook to impress. This does not include ramen noodles unless he has some twist where he seasons it with fish sauce and seaweed, adds some veggies and shrimp or prawns and pairs it with a light and airy white wine.
Outside of being able to impress a girl and catch himself a worthy woman, a boy should want to be able to feed himself something edible and not just utilitarian. I have never believed in the old adage of eating to live and not living to eat. Food is fundamental to our happiness...our evolution...our desire to live. Food brings people together. Food gives the most tame of us a medium in which to be creative and exciting. Food facilitates communication. Food, in and of itself, is not evil. Do not blame the food, blame the bad eaters. It's not the food that kills you. It's the over eating. It's the lack of balance. It's the dearth of appreciation for complex and robust flavors.
Teach your son to enjoy the texture and richness of whole wheat bread and why would he ever turn to plain, tasteless white bread? (Unless he's eating a BLT or a cucumber sandwich.) Teach him to season his food with a modicum of salt, herbs, spices, etc. and he won't feel compelled to salt a wonderful, brie-stuffed hamburger before even tasting it and raising the ire of his wife who had presented the meal with a great deal of pride. (It still gets under my skin every time he picks up a salt shaker.) Teach him to understand the science of cooking and maybe he'll surprise his wife by cooking her a meal instead of always asking what she will cook in between working, cleaning, running around, and going to school. - Not that this is ever done to me.
And so, I have been teaching my son (and my daughter) to appreciate their food since they were little bitty bugs. They have always eaten and enjoyed their vegetables, grains, meats, fruits, etc. My son used to ask me at every meal what his broccoli would do for him. Or his milk. Or his grilled chicken. He knows protein helps his muscles grow and keeps his energy up. He is aware that his milk makes his bones strong and his smile beautiful. He loves that his whole wheat bread helps him poop.
In the last few months, he has entered into the realm of learning to cook. On Mardi Gras, to fulfill his requirement 7d for his Cooking Merit Badge and to get a chance to play with knives and fire (another good reason to learn how to cook), he and I made a chicken and andouille etoufee from scratch. I think he enjoys eating it even more because of his pride in his accomplishment. And, I kow some lucky girl will get a great husband...in thirty years or so.
Here he is demonstrating his mad knife skills
And playing with his chicken
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| Learning his weights and measures |
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| Stirring his roux - yes, he's making a roux |
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| Cutting his butter for the browning of the chicken |
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| And, the browning of the chicken |
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| His etoufee pre-chicken and andouille |
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| Our dinner spread |
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| DINNER! |
