Nastia makes Empanadas Elena puts off making dinner.

Nastia makes Empanadas Elena puts off making dinner. The fun seems to have left the girls when it comes to cooking. Both of them have said they don’t know what to cook. I can understand, so when they say that I try to get them to investigate options they might want to eat. When you don’t know what's out there you are limited. How can you imagine the vastness of choices when you don’t know what the variety is? It’s hard to explain, I’ve been where they are, so I feel I know. It comes from not being exposed to what is out there.

Coming up on 14 years this October, they have not been involved in what they have eaten very much. If they didn’t like what they were fed, they’d sort of eat it, but not notice it, if you know what I mean. Now that they have to cook their immediate reaction is to try to cook something they like, something usually easy. That’s OK, but they’ve gone through their list of likes and Teri and I want them to expand their repertoire.Add new things, try to cook things they have never had and most of the time these dishes will still have a list of familiar ingredients. Last week Nastia made stuffed shells and Elena made a dish with ground beef, peppers and cheese. Both were good and both were later used as leftovers on a later day (So Teri and I don’t have to cook, if we don’t want to) So far this week Nastia made Empanadas. It was her first attempt to make them and there were a few mistakes made. Both Teri and her are unemployed looking for jobs. During the afternoon both made the empanadas. Nastia went bowling in our league and Teri put the empanadas in the oven just before we came back. She left it up to Nastia to decide when they were cooked. Here is where the frame of reference comes in. I have burnt enough food that I have gotten pretty good at deciding when something is cooked, Nastia hasn’t. I was not involved in this and thought Teri had a handle on things. Nastia asked, “When are they cooked?” Teri said when they have browned. Now Nastia has no frame of reference for what is considered browned. I would have stopped at a light golden brown. Nastia took her mother's directions to mean ‘brown’, so she waited until they were ‘brown’. She made rice and two vegetables and called everyone to dinner. I didn’t take a picture of the empanadas, but suffice to say the color they came out of the oven was more along the lines of almost a chocolate brown. She asked everyone how they were and I was honest. They were over cooked. They still tasted pretty good. THe one problem that plagued the dinner was she made different ones for different tastes. Seans had no peppers in his. Nastia’s had no cheese and the rest had peppers and cheese. Teri and Nastia made marks in the different ones to tell them apart. The marks disappeared while they were cooking. During dinner empanadas were passed around as people found one they didn’t like. I ate whatever was put on my plate. Dinner was good.

I added an old picture of Nastia and a new picture of garden asparagus because I didn't take any picture during any of this. Elena has Thursdays off. She cooked last Thursday and cooked a beef dish with peppers and cheese, it was good. She has plans for this Thursday and has pushed off her cooking day to Friday. I have a feeling it’s going to be takeout for her night to cook. I don’t like letting this happen because when she is no longer the richest person in the house because she doesn’t spend much, she’ll need to know how to cook and won’t have the skills and if Teri and I are gone, she’ll be calling her sister asking how to make something. Elena would rather starve or eat instant soup.

It's Friday now and Elena has put off cooking dinner again. Yes we are letting her get away with it again, Nastia. She gets nasty and it's just not worth it. We treat each of you differently and I hope you will understand one day why. One day you and her will be sitting down together and she'll wonder why her meatballs don't taste like her mother's or how did dad cook something else. You'll know and you don't have to tell her if you don't want to. Your mother and I will be laughing from beyond the grave.

Well, they are sisters. They hate each other until they start looking out for each other. They go out drinking one night. They come home several hours later and Nastia is pretty drunk or maybe just acting it, I don’t know. She starts talking to me, eyes all wide and glassy. Elena comes up behind her, turns her around and walks her upstairs. Making sure she is safe and in bed. Sisters??!! Go figure, I think the next day Elena would have said she hated her sister if asked.