If at first you don't succeed...burn the second pound of hamburger

As many of you know, there are definitely moments when being a mother is more rewarding than others. This evening was not one of those moments.

Although it had been a pleasant day, it had been a little busy and I got home just a few minutes before I had to teach (I only had 2 lessons). So I asked my 2 oldest to empty the van of groceries, and then proceeded to give them small assignments for dinner prep so we could eat as soon as I was done at 5. Paul’s job was to brown the hamburger for the tacos…and that was it. I explained what I thought was a simple process and went in to teach my lessons. About 15 minutes later, Maryn comes running in screaming. “There’s smoke all over in the kitchen!”

Well, I hastened to the scene and discovered that, indeed, my kitchen was haze filled. Paul had put the beef on the stove on Medium High and then gone to the bathroom (with a book, which is never good news). Hence the new take on tacos…charcoal tacos. Well, it was actually much worse then it looked (you can only see a portion of the heat hardened meat in the photo), so we gave put it by the barn to feed some lonely, and now lucky, cat. Then, I reviewed with my son what went wrong, with specific instructions to not leave the food on the stove unattended and to cover it and turn it off when the meat was cooked. We quickly defrosted my last pound of hamburger and I went to finish my lesson. 

Upon my return, I discovered he had somehow not only thoroughly burned the second batch, but had used my plastic spatula to stir and break apart the meat….and then left it in there. It is now a half of a plastic spatula. The other half, I assume, is adding some interesting flavoring to another course for the same lonely barn cat.

Lucky cat.

P.S. We ended up having quesadillas and oranges. And Paul owes me 2 pounds of hamburger…