Chef D

Delaney’s been working on his Cooking merit badge for scouts. He went to a few classes over the last month and spent a Saturday at a counselor’s house with a few other boys. They all came home with a rack of ribs and a hunk of brisket, which was excellent.

This past weekend he went camping for the spring Advancement Camp for the Boy Scouts. It’s where they try to orient the new 5th grade boys and get them moving in Boy Scouts, hoping most can get their Tenderfoot badge. Delaney’s been a few times and went there this time as an instructor for the Orienteering merit badge. That was good since he earned the badge over the weekend with the work he did.

However he also had to cook 5 meals for the adults over the weekend. Each kid had to plan, cost, shop, and cook the meals for himself and 2 other adults. Tia got him shopped and settled at camp since I was out of town, but he wasn’t completely organized. He called in a panic Fri night that he couldn’t find the spaghetti sauce for his meal. We were worried, so I drove out Saturday to be sure he wasn’t really missing anything.

As I drove out, he called again, in another panic over how to cook his chicken dinner. I got there, and one of the adults was helping him determine the best way to cook it and he ended up making a nice BBQ chicken dinner with salad and peas. A few of the adults complemented him, and told me that he’d done a great job with spaghetti the night before. I guess his panic was reserved for the parents as no one else noticed.

On the drive home he told me that he did what Tia and I do. He browned meat, added sauce, cooked it a bit, etc. Neat that he’s paid a little attention to us. He did a much better job than a few of the other boys. I was sitting on a few board of reviews this past week for a few of the cooking students and I asked them about their meals. One kid “cooked”

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

• cold cereal
• grilled cheese
• ramen
• cold cut sandwiches

Another did

• hamburgers
• quesadillas
• hot dogs
• bagels and cream cheese

Delaney did:

• quesadillas
• egg burritos
• spaghetti and salad
• BBQ chicken

He took the “cook" part of the merit badge seriously.

He has to cook 9 meals at home as well. He did quesadillas on the weekend a few weeks back, and last night I asked him if he’d cook little pizzas. He asked for a little supervision, but he took spaghetti sauce, added some red pepper and basil, cooked it, then spread it on bread, added pepperoni and cheese for Kendall, onions for himself and me. Very tasty.

Looking forward to seeing what else he will cook.