improv cooking

I have endeavored to teach all of my children to cook. They all do reasonably well although they don't like to follow recipes. Still, I figured Hamburger Helper is so easy that even my ds, 13, could handle it. He insisted that he couldn't. I assured him that he could having cooked much more complicated dishes on his own before. Well, it turns out he was right. I got a call during my meeting, "Mom, I think I ruined the dinner. It's all soupy and it tastes watery." It turns out he cooked the noodles and then added the meat, the milk and the cheese powder. Those things are supposed to be mixed together before the noodles get cooked. While I was trying to figure out what to do and whether we had anything else or if I was going to have to order pizza, he suggested draining it all and adding spaghetti sauce. Brilliant. I suggested adding mozzarella cheese and baking it for 20 minutes. Delicious. He's always been so spacey and goofy it's fun to see him emerging into a resourceful, responsible young adult. He's got more going on than he lets on to. I do think, however, he needs to spend some time with the cook book!