How a Teenager made his Mom's Day

Yesterday was one of these days. There was no school due to further education for teachers. Unlike any privatly owned organization, school does not divide participants into several groups in order to maintain daily operations. School closes its doors for the day. They think it's perfectly acceptable because they told us parents well in advance.

I used to hate these memos. When Colin was little it meant I had to beg either my Mom or daycare to look after him on these extra days.

Luckily he's old enough to look after himself now. As it turned out, he didn't only look after himself but after his working parents as well. It was the sweetest thing. But let's start the night before.

Sunday was Swiss Ice Hockey Day. At ice rinks across the country there were events celebrating the sport, typically not without raising funds for the youth teams. Like every year Colin had to contact his sponsors to ask for their financial support. For each lap he was going to skate during ten minutes, people promised to pay up to five bucks.

He did well, even finished the race fifth in his category. No wonder he was hungry, well, hangry even. We went out for dinner, and while studying the menu he noticed that no Italian restaurant ever features "Cinque Pi" in their menues.

That's because Cinque Pi is a fake Italian meal, invented by a fake person.

Let me explain.

First of all, what does Cinque Pi stand for? It translates as "Five Ps", as in the letter P:

• Panna = Cream
• Pomodoro = Tomato
• Parmigiano = Parmesan Cheese
• Prezzemolo = Parsley
• Pepe = Pepper

If you put these ingredients together, you'll get a light pink sauce. It's usually served with Penne, probably just because of the first letter. I'm sure it'd be equally yummy with tagliatelle or macaroni.

Anyway. To my knowledge, this recipe was developed by the fictional Swiss chef icon Betty Bossi. Growing up I imagined she was a friendly, wholesome, middle aged lady who wears an apron and knows all the kitchen tricks. Up to this day I still feel betrayed by whatever marketing company that invented her because she does not exist in real life. It's a team of people that since the mid-50's have been publishing three cookbooks annually and runs a webshop selling more or less useful utensils you will find in every Swiss household. 

Long story short, we ordered Italian food and talked about how we wanted to eat Penne alle Cinque Pi one of these days, and I went "how about you make them since it's your day off tomorrow and we have to work all day?"

To my surprise he didn't refuse, and we didn't talk about it further.

We came home, I started laundry and stayed awake until it was time to transfer it to the dryer, then I went to sleep. the youngster had a hockey game (11pm our time) and a football game (midnight our time) to catch on TV. 

The Leafs and the Seahawks won. At least that's what my app said on Monday morning.

When we went to work he was still asleep, and I expected this to be the case for a little while longer. Before noon I left work a little early and went grocery shopping to ship up a quick lunch, and so he would have all the ingredients handy when it became time to make dinner. 

I arrived home, and to my surprise I heard the whirring sound of the kitchen hood. What was going on???

Colin stood at the stove and stirred in the cooking pots.

"Oh good, you're here, I could use a little help chopping the parsley!"

I dropped my bags.

Did you go shopping? I brought the ingredients. I thought you were going to sleep till noon, so I came prepared to make lunch. When did you even get up?

"8:30"

Wow. Did you have enough credit on your Twint account? 

(Twint = electronic payment method, using your phone, I guess it's comparable to Venmo)

"I had some cash left from Saturday. I put the change on the counter."

He had finally celebrated his birthday with his friends last Saturday. They took the train to go bowling, ordered pizza and watched movies at home. Hubby and I had to leave the house and didn't return till his out of town friend needed a ride to the train station. 

Awesome. You truly rock! Did you find my recipe book?

"Duh, I googled it. Who needs recipe books?"

True. I shut up and chopped the parsley, not without silently smiling from joy. 

This was truly better than Mother's Day! Especially the fact that he loaded the dishwasher and - sort of - cleaned the stove tops.

Just wanted to share my happy moment. Be well!