I thought it would be cool to share some ideas about how to do fun things durring the summertime with one's YF.

One of the things I used to love to do with my "L" durring the summer was cook out on the grill. It's something I love to do and I found out that it's a great thing to share with a young boy of the age of 10 on up. He really loved it too because it gave him a chance to do something grown up with me and he got a chance to learn how to cook for himself. Not a bad deal all the way around, actually. We would do the traditional hambergers and hotdogs, but sometimes we would do barbequed chicken ("L"'s favorite!) steaks or even shishkabobs. Kabobs are especially fun because you get to put all the stuff on the skewers.

Barbequing is also a way to teach a boy about safe food handling and safe cooking techniques. You've got to be fairly patient with him because he will want to try and throw something into the fire at some point in time. I had to explain to "L" why throwing sticks and leaves into a barbeque fire isn't a good idea, but he got the picture after a while. He really loved cooking like that from the very start and after a while I was able to just walk away and let him go at it. Sometimes he burned a few burgers but, hey, Emeril wasn't a chef overnight either. He used to be so proud that he was the one who had just cooked dinner. It was great and it gave him a love for cooking that he could take with him into adulthood.

Anyway, that's my contribution. I might be able to add some other stuff later...

Chris