Owen - The Spice Ninja

By all indications, Owen will grow up be a chef... a chef who is not afraid of seasoning, spices, and flavor.  He has long pulled a chair up to the stove to cook with Niles and me.  At this point, we're just trying to make sure he's entertained enough to not catch himself (or anything else) on fire.  It was a sad moment when I realized he DID know how to turn on the gas burners.

Once he's got his pot of "food" (meaning extra scraps of what I'm cooking minus raw meat) "cooking" (meaning he's stirring it with a large wooden spoon, rubber spatula, whisk, or his chosen culinary tool), he usually will then push the bar stool over to the spice drawer to choose appropriate seasonings.

Unfortunately, his favorite spices to add seem to be: red curry, onion powder, and garlic powder.  And he only knows one amount: half of the container or whenever I stop him, whichever happens first.  Other than going through an outrageous amount of these seasonings, the main problem is this:

He' s a spice ninja.

He'll add these items to your food when you are not expecting it.  It's one thing for him to season foods under my supervision.  It's quite another to do it when we're not watching.  Beware of leaving open containers of food on the counter or items bubbling away on the stove at our house.

True story: I was putting away leftover curried beef with spinach and rice into a tupperware container, turned my back to take care of something, and then popped the lid back on.  The next day, I wondered why the normally sweet curry burned the roof of my mouth.  Then I realized, I had been a victim of Owen the Spice Ninja.

Other victims of the Spice Ninja include: two separate occasions of boxed macaroni and cheese, scrambled eggs, stir-frys, pasta with (now) garlic sauce, (now) garlic mashed potatoes.

So in case you have a spice ninja on your hands, here's my best advice:

- give up trying to get the seasoning out of the dish.  Powders are impossible to remove
- adding sour cream and whole milk to heavily curried macaroni and cheese makes it a creamy, spicy, Indian influenced dish
- adding sweetness (honey, sugar) will help cut through some of the heat
- adding more butter to overly garlic/oniony flavored items makes it seem almost intentional

Otherwise, lock up your spice drawer while you still can.

Owen the Spice Ninja strikes Niles' dry rub