The Cooker with added Autism

My son has this thing for calling someone a 'cooker' rather than chef, which I think is quite good and why shouldn't they be called that, cooking is what they do. The word "chef" originates from the term chef de cuisine  which means the director or head of a kitchen. From the autism world I think 'cooker' describes it better. 

He came home all excited the other day from college and told me about how they had watched a video in his catering class about cooking poached eggs. This doesn't happen an awful lot, sometimes when I ask what he has been up to at college I get a 'ermmmm. I can't remember', so this was one of those super exciting events when I got some feedback. You know those days as an autism parent? It's like Christmas and winning the lottery all in one. Yes my child can venture out of the world of Thomas the Tank and Fireman Sam and we can talk about other stuff. 

So containing my excitement but keeping enough there to listen to his experience I learnt all about how he had cooked these poached eggs in clingfilm and proceeded to show me the 'you tube clip'. I hadn't seen them cooked this way so I set him a challenge to show me and he did.
With a little help he lined a bowl with clingfilm, brushed it with melted butter and seasoned it. I had put a pan of water on to boil and turned it down to a simmer. He wrapped the egg up in the clingfilm and popped it into the water to cook. He repeated the process with another egg and after a few minutes we took them out and he unwrapped them onto some beans on toast. He said they were awesome and proceeded to text everyone he knew with the good news, complete with photo. His texts are so lovely to read and very funny. I love the way even in conversation as well as his texts he calls people, not necessarily by their name but by their title. For example: he will text my mum, (his nan) about the eggs and type ' Good news,, I have shown your daughter how to poach eggs' or to his Uncle, 'Dude I showed my mother how to cook poached eggs, so try it with toast' When he has texted he will inform me that he has sent a message to my mother and my brother. So formal but he gives us a giggle that's for sure. 

I was pretty impressed, I suppose it's a good way really as the egg all stays together in a neat package. I know what your thinking though as I did, is it really safe to cook something at a high temperature in clingfilm? I looked on the web and some say yes, some say no or just check the information of the clingfilm packet. The thing is we have other little resources in our kitchen to cook poached eggs. I have a poaching pan and those silicone pouches so when we get a moment I might just show him another way to cook them that is less fiddly. 

I was so proud of him because he found something else to talk about and I loved it. When he finds something that interests him such as this, he throws himself into it 100%. The passion and excitement shows, he wants to tell the world and we will be talking about this for weeks.. You Tube is so educational, the 'how to' videos are brilliant, you can throw away an instruction book now and just go online and learn how to work something, fix something, cook a meal or apply make up. You could even mentally digest an instruction book before throwing it away, record your own vlog and go viral yourself. 

So there you go a budding cooker, might not be ready for Masterchef yet but hey who knows, the best cookers must start with boiling an egg surely. I think we may just do more cooking and baking together as I just feel he came out of his shell (see what I did there) a little and ventured into another world. The fact is that it is also good to get him to cook safely as part of teaching him a little independence. He can do it, will take a bit of practice but I'll help him all I can.

Thanks for reading.....I'll be back tomorrow for 'Pass the Remote' - don't fight about it or lose it, just pass it.

Take care for now.......