Chez Anything

Everyone knows that the last week of school is basically just parties, throwing away the unused portions of the No Child Left Behind workbooks, and last-minute, rushed promises during dropoff on the blacktop to get together for cocktails over the summer. By the parents, people! Not the kids - that would be totally inappropriate!

But during Jonah's last week of school, he had a project due. And it was the best project EVER!! It was called The Anything Project, and the rules were simple: Do Anything That You've Never Done Before. Woo Hoo! Jonah chose cooking, since he'd been wanting to learn to cook for ages. I'd promised to teach him back when I had a gas stove, but then gave up when I moved to a place with electric. How does one teach to cook with an electric stove, I ask you?! Well, I figured it out, for the sake of education.

As always, Jonah decided to step it up a notch. Rather than just some boring old cooking (he practiced that when he made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast) he opted for a whole restaurant! He made Evie his little waitress-slash-hostess, draped a white towel over her arm, and planted her by the door to wait for our guest (he thought more than one guest might be too much to handle...), with strict instructions: "when he arrives, answer the door by saying 'Welcome to Chez Anything!' (grand sweep of arm) 'May I start you with a drink?'" Needless to say, our one guest was impressed.

He made a menu...and poured mom some bubbles.
As it should be.

He chopped the bejeezus out of some Romaine!

Chop, Chop, Chop. Olives, Red Pepper, Carrot

He tossed that sucker!

That's some Penne, baby!

And some sauce! It's even heated!!

Jonah insisted that we all dress up. I wore heels. Heels, people! And makeup, though it didn't last long after I mashed it all over his handsome face.

It was a great, fun and, not surprisingly, delicious meal. Afterward there were games. Every game that we own, in fact. After a while, we started mixing them all up. This one was called: How Many Wooden Haba Animals Can We Stack on Top of the Connect Four Game?

Jonah and I were the only ones that stayed in our fancy clothes

Finally, I had to stop having fun to step into my job: Busboy. I picked up dirty plates and glasses, did dishes in my dress and heels, and cleaned up after my chef. Just like the old days! Thank you, La Cantina in Paw Paw, Michigan. You prepared me well.

If you'd like to be a guest on our next restaurant night, make your reservation now - it's very exclusive: One guest per seating. One seating per night. One night per month.