The art of….

As parents we pass on life skills to our children in many ways, some are chores others fun, all are skills that appear simple but can be awkward to master. Skills we should pass on but to a child they don’t always see the need or in a high tech society the relevance. So I started to compile a list, things I want to teach my children, but things that I feel are life skills as well. The list went something like this.

• The art of making a good couple of tea, or expresso.
• The art of washing up  – don’t even think about the art of loading a dishwasher as every person has their own way, and as the TV series Outnumbers often highlighted a common occurrence in many kitchens.
• The art of polishing a pair of shoes.
• The art of ironing a shirt.
• The art of packing a suitcase.
• The art of shaving.
• The art of making a sandwich.
• The art of parallel parking.
• The art of tying a tie (Windsor, double windsor and bow tie).
• The art of shuffling cards

The list is long and often different from dad to dad, but I will come back to it remembering my own experiences and comments from my children.

But I want to start with the art of sandwich making.

It was once simple bread, butter and filling but if you go into any Deli or even Subway the choices of bread, filling, salads, sauces, toasted or not have now complicated matters. To me there are only two types of sandwiches toasted or not … the use of a sandwich toaster and the need for any would be student to be trained in the art of the hot cheese and ham with pineapple toasties are for another blog …today the focus is the humble Sandwich, as legend would have it – invented by an Earl who was enjoying playing cards and couldn’t leave the table to eat (substitute card game for PS3, XBox or DSi and you have the a very common occurrence!!).

I use to watch Scooby Do as a child and was inspired into making my own sandwiches, piling them high with everything I could find, cheese pickle ham, Nutella, Golden Syrup, cucumber,  lettuce, coleslaw  and even experiementing with flavours. Now I am no Heston Blumenthal but I can honestly say that the Crispy bacon and banana sandwich with ketchup on toasted bread is a thing of beauty!!!   As are the golden syrup and sugar sandwich or the thick cold roast beef, coleslaw and ketchup.

How I long for the day I can start to explore with my children this form of culinary adventure, but alas its not to be …Yet. As my kids only want  ham and Dairylea ….nothing else will do on sandwiches, so alas, I will have to wait!!!

But as my eldest son starts big school in September I will get to cover polishing shoes, ironing a Shirt and tying a tie in the next few weeks so I will let you know how I get on.

Until next time…

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Image: Some rights reserved by quantum bunny