The Chef

Samuel was given this cool cook book by is Grandparents:
It's neat because most recipes are fairly simple. However, each recipe has a skill level. None of that really matters because Samuel picks what he thinks sounds good and we go from there.

To the extent we are able, we advise him on what he is making and if we think he'll like it. For example, he picked Eggs Benedict one day and we went with it, as he likes eggs and muffins. He actually liked everything including the faux Hollandaise sauce.

The recipe he picked, the Mexican Chorizo Noodle bowl is not something I would encourage him for as he's not a pasta fan. He'll try it, but he has never really eaten a meal of pasta. His sister loves pasta, not him...

He wasn't to be dissuaded and we forged ahead. Now - for reference, and I actually knew better but let go - don't *ever* buy Chorizo from a regulation super market (read: Safeway, PW, Nob Hill, etc...). I bought some stuff that came packed in plastic material. It pretty much just melted. This is a stomach problem looking to happen. It is mostly grease. Hey, in this scenario, I'm just the sous chef anyway so I can blame the Executive Chef (only, I did the shopping...).

Not that "good" Chorizo is not greasy, this stuff is pretty much grease based. Anyway, we used it. You create what is essentially a soup (after draining off as much grease as you are able, of course!):

Then add a bunch of other pretty good ingredients:

However, never cook raw pasta in a dish (like this), cook it first, then add it at the end and serve... ugh. Cooking it in the sauce made the broth too thick. The exec chef again, was not phased by this:

He had a bout 2 bites and called it a wrap... Leftovers? Ya, plenty. It was pretty tasty in the end.