My birthday is coming up, so as part of my birthday present, my wife found a parent-child cooking class through one of the local parks and recreation departments and reserved places in it for me and my older boy (who is 4.5). We told him that he was taking me to the class as his birthday present to me.

When I got there, the class instructor was shocked and joyed to have a "daddy" there. Seems men at these classes are a rare and wonderful thing. Out of 9 parents there, I was the only man, and my son was one of two boys out of ten kids. We had some food related games and then the kids helped spread pepperoni and cheese on a class pizza to eat there, then used various items to turn two pieces of naan into "pizza faces" while the class pizza cooked. We took the pizza faces home and cooked them for lunch afterward.

They put out chopped red cabbage for hair, but they also put out big leaves of basil for ears. I borrowed a knife from the instructor's assistant and cut some basil into strips to use as hair. Much cooler... and more flavorful.

Tonight, I defrosted some pork chops and let my son help me do some of the prep work. They're the super-thick chops you get at Costco, so I butterflied them into a more manageable thickness, then he helped me scoop spices to make a dry rub.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 rounded tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt

I sprinkled the rub onto the chops to make sure he didn't spill it all over or dump half the mix on one chop, but he helped me pat it into the meat. Then we washed our hands, covered the plate with plastic wrap, and let the rub do its magic in the fridge for 45 minutes.

I fried the chops in just enough butter to coat the bottom of the pan. I saw a thing on "America's Test Kitchen" where they said the secret to juicy pork chops it to cook them over lower heat. Bringing them up to the doneness you desire more slowly wrings less of the natural moisture out of them. I've found it works.

And doing it with my rub and some butter leaves this mixture of butter, sugar, pork fat, and just a little bit of pork juices in the pan that's a perfect medium for cooking up a couple of sliced onions while you let the chops rest. I defrosted and drained some frozen chopped spinach, then threw it in with the onions at the end to warm.

Served the chops on a bed of the onion/spinach mixture with a squeeze of lime. Mmmm. This is the second time I've done this rub on pork chops and my wife tells me it's a keeper. The boy likes it too and he likes being a part of the process.

My oldest boy, who just turned 4-and-a-half, loves to draw and color. And because he does it so much, he's become pretty good at it... for his age. He gets a lot of compliments on his drawing skills.

Today as I was driving home, I had an interesting chat with him.

Son: Daddy, who drawed all of this?

Me: Who drew all of this? Like here, where we live?

Son: Yeah.

Me: Well, I guess God drew it.

Son: God drew it on a piece of paper and then made it real.

Me: That's an interesting idea.

Son: Yeah, that's what He did.

The following is a real ad from Craigslist:

NEW TLC TV SHOW LOOKING FOR KIDS WHO HAVE SWALLOWED FOREIGN OBJECTS!

TLC is producing a special for TV about kids who have swallowed foreign
objects.

Has your child ever swallowed something they weren't supposed to? A quarter, a toy, hair clip, battery, your cell phone etc?

If so, we'd LOVE to hear from you! However you, or your doctor MUST have an X-RAY showing the object that your child swallowed to be considered for the documentary.

Email Megan a brief summary of your story and your contact info.

This just struck me as generally funny, which is why I forwarded it to a few friends, but my friend Randy Cassingham pointed out the whole cell phone bit.

Avast me hearties!

I'm often coming up with funny designs or jokes for my grown up audience, but I'm a dad too (two boys) and sometimes I just come up with stuff for them like cute or silly songs.

Here's a new series of designs branded around the phrase "Born To Plunder™". They feature baby/toddler pirates and teddy bear pirates. I hope you enjoy them.
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