Becareful what you ask a 13 yr old to make for Dinner

My 13 yr old son is usually very good at following recipes and loves to cook. I therefore have been giving him more and more opportunities to cook some meals.
Usually I leave meatloaf as a weekend meal since it has to cook for so long and we don't get home till 6pm so its way to late for me to start it.
Well I decided the recipe I follow is very easy. This morning I laid out all the seasonings that it called for on the counter so he didn't have to hunt them down. I explained 2 thing about the recipe that I have personally changed and left it at that. Told him start putting it together at 5 and throw it in the oven at 5:30 so it will be ready by 6:30.
Now mind you before we get into how this went horribly wrong. He has seen the final results of everything mixed together before. He has helped mix everything together before.

Fast forward to almost 7pm when the timer went off and I pull his masterpiece out and have to take a 2nd look. It is half the size it should be. It is only taking up half my loaf pan. I'm sitting there staring at this in absolute disbelief and thinking OMG I used to much of the meat last night to make hamburgers. But I was pretty sure I had left at least a lb and a half like it needs lol.

It was basically nothing more than the breadcrumbs and seasoning. So I go in and I ask him are you sure you put everything in. Breadcrumbs? Milk? Egg? Yes Yes Yes

I go back out to the kitchen and stare at it more and start crying LOL Then I open the refrigerator thinking "Well damn now what" and low and behold half the meat I had sitting in there for this meatloaf is still in its package. STILL IN THE PACKAGE!?!?!?

I storm into his room "WHY IN THE WORLD IS THERE MEAT LEFT????" he says "I used how much the recipe said" So we head to the kitchen pull out the recipe book and then show him the meat and ask please tell me how you then measured a lb and half of meat??

"DUMBFOUNDED LOOK" staring at the book and I get ... are you ready... "OH a lb and a half I swear it said a cup and a half" me "WHAT???"

Keep in mind this kid is a wiz in science understands how things are measured and what not. LOL I'm like come on think how does meat get measured.

He gets this sheepish look on his face and says boy this was pretty stupid SIGH

My husband amazingly kept calm and just suggests brown the other meat, mix in the half a meat loaf and we'll just top it with Ketchup. LOL

SO it worked we had dinner but OMG He helped fix the mistake and even agrees he learned his lesson this time to read recipes better.

SIGH What an evening.
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Tags: cooking, food, mistakes