Tuesday, May 31, 2011

College boy cuisine.

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Will brought some friends home to cook out the other night. They had stopped at the grocery store on the way to our house and picked up their "fixings" for dinner.

Though he has witnessed me cooking and entertaining often over the years, I'm not sure one iota of southern hospitality has rubbed off on Will. Nor has he absorbed much on balanced nutrition or healthy eating!

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Here we have dessert, side dishes (two varieties of barbecue potato chips) and beverage, all of which conveniently also served as the hors d'oeuvres

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For their entree guests had a choice of bratwurst or steak (not shown because they were whisked out of the kitchen and onto the grill before I could pull out my camera)

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I could only take pictures stealthily from inside the house lest I mortify my son and chase off said guests. There seemed to be a lot more supervising than actual cooking taking place, though, from what I could tell


When the food on the grill was ready, I instructed Will to offer his friends a plate and some silverware (since it was clear he was not setting a table). He informed me that he only needed three plates because one of his friends had already eaten his bratwurst straight off the grill in a tortilla.

I had prepared a nice dinner of halibut, shrimp risotto with truffle oil and a Greek salad for Robert, Vivian and me that night. Amazingly, none of that appealed to the boys and they passed on my offer to share. Imagine!

I keep thinking of the Bible verse "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6). I hope that Will does not yet qualify as "old," else I have surely failed in my training duties somewhere along the way!

11 comments:

Maggie said...

It's a phase :) Interest in civilized behavior came later in my son. The summer after freshman year of college was ... interesting. I had to frequently remind that food, language (no, every word does NOT begin with "f"), and laundry practices were not the same as at school. Good luck!

linda said...

Oh that is so cute! Well, he was entertaining them, and he looked to be a gracious host! Baby steps!!!
-linda,ny

KVP said...

hahaha. Typical boys!! Just wait until he is married and his wife can share stories on how he lived as a college kid and post college kid. If you knew the filth my husband lived in when we met. My husband is a VERY clean and neat man but in college, there were actual mushrooms growing off of his walls and carpets. No joke. As you can imagine, his mother was mortified on graduation day when family arrived and saw the house.

Unknown said...

hilarious, eloise! i can only imagine how my boys would fare if given such a situation...chicken tenders, squeezy beans (edamame--hey, at least it's a vegetable!) and pink lemonade would be their menu. love this post!

nene P said...

He had learned all the 'southern graces', just hanging with his bro's right now... I love it. My boys dod the same and now that they are married, they can pull off a dinner party.

The Mrs. said...

OMG these pictures are hilarious. I love that you snuck them!!!!

Jessica Ryan said...

Hilarious!!!! I can't say my palette was terribly different in college either :)

bevy said...

Sometimes I leave out the utensils myself! Bwahahahahaha!

Ellen Kerr said...

It is a college boy thing! Leslie and i ate ramen noodles, pizza, and kraft mac and cheese all through college. Look at us now! Lol!

Erin said...

"He informed me that he only needed three plates because one of his friends had already eaten his bratwurst straight off the grill in a tortilla."--- We are living parallel lives, Eloise! This actually made me laugh out loud! I have been so crazy here... I have hardly sat down for months. I hope to get back to blogging in a few weeks! I loved reading about Dots and camp too. So cute!

lwoodtex said...

One day a sweet young lady will catch his eye and all of those lessons and manners learned will suddenly appear. He will then appreciate his mother, he might even tell you thank you. :-)