Stone Soup

Matthew likes to cook. His signature dishes include blue berry/cinnamon muffins, brownies and cornbread. Matthew can even recite the order of the recipe and recognize that some brownie mixes come with syrup and some don't. When he's not in the kitchen for real, he is making oatmeal and pizza with his play dough and breakfast with sand. So far, he just likes to imagine what happens when a large quantity of incompatible foodstuffs are mixed into one unholy glop. (soy sauce + oatmeal = YUCK)

When we first moved into our house, we were a little concerned that the small rocks in the back yard would become projectiles. They have become ingredients for stone soup instead.

Recipe for stone soup:
Fill old Tupperware with gravel from the garden
Fetch water from the fountain and mix with stones
Sprinkle with sand brought specially from the park (if available)
Add Mint or Rosemary from the garden for flavor
Stir frequently and transfer from one receptacle to another with a variety of spoons
Find grown up to sample and express amazement at the flavor and consistency of today's offering

Owen, ever fascinated by what his brother does is always on hand to participate.  The only real problem we've had with the stones is that Owen likes to put them in his mouth. He watched Matthew lifting stones around with the spoons and decided to try it out for himself. Before we knew it he was spooning rocks into his mouth. At that point, we pulled out our tiniest baby spoons thinking he would not have the control to get the rocks all the way to his mouth. It took him about a day and a half to figure it out. Fortunately, he is quite happy to spit them out when asked. They like to get started early in the kitchen. The photo below was taken ~ 6:45 AM.