Next month, the tiny kitchen assistant will be starting a new preschool, one without a hot lunch option. This will require me to get creative five days a week.
This morning, at breakfast, I asked him for some suggestions for what he’d like to take for lunch. After the obvious choice of mac & cheese, he came up with some good ideas, including “leftover dinner meat and Mommy’s homemade bread” (awww) and black bean salad.
“Good idea,” I said. “I could make black bean salad for you.”
“No,” he replied. “I can make black bean salad myself.”
“Oh really?” I asked. “How do you make it?”
“First, you get three cans.”
“What’s in the cans?” I asked.
“Ingredients.”
Before I could ask more questions he said, “One is black beans, one is corn and one is tomatoes. But not the big tomatoes. The ones that are cut up tiny. And the corn can is the smallest can. Then you open them with the can opener and rinse them off in the strainer. Are you writing this down? Anyway, you put them all in the silver bowl, then get one lemon and one lime from the bottom drawer of the fridge. You cut them in half and squeeze them with the squeezer until there’s nothing left inside. Then you stir it up and shake on some cumin — not too much, ’cause you can always add more later.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly how you make black bean salad.