The Boys Cook Dinner

"When did Mandy say Jolena was coming home?" Emil asked Billy as the boys stared at the empty kitchen.

No one was cutting vegetables at the sink. No yummy smells were drifting through the air. No beeps or buzzes or whirring sounds came from the appliances sitting on the countertops.

"I think it was Monday," Billy replied, "but I'm pretty sure she won't feel like cooking for a couple of days. She was pretty tired when she came home from last year's Doll Ski Team practice in South America."

Billy knew that Emil was missing Jolena––he missed Jolena, too––but they also missed her cooking. The dolls hadn't hadn't pretended to eat a really good, home-cooked meal since she had left, and they were missing it. All the dolls could cook, but no one could cook like Jolena! She often organized the other dolls so each one had a job to do. She would show them how to do their jobs correctly. Billy could remember Jolena in the kitchen, teaching and encouraging the other dolls, and would be very happy when she was home again.

"Well, it's our turn to cook," said Emil, turning to look at the refrigerator, which was the first place to start when trying to decide what to have for dinner. "What should we fix?"

"We need to be sure what we fix is good for us," Billy said. "We need something from each of the different food groups."

"Let's fix an extra food, too," Emil said, thinking about cookies or pudding.

"Let's see what's in the refrigerator," Billy said. The boys knew some easy dishes they could cook all by themselves. All they needed to do was see if what they needed was on hand.

There were lettuce, mushrooms, sprouts and other things for salad in the refrigerator. They found some frozen vegetables and cooked chicken in the freezer. There were some bottles and jars of sauces in the pantry. There is always rice. That suggested to them one of the easy things they knew how to fix. If they cooked some rice, heated up the vegetables and chicken with a sauce, made a salad and gave each doll a glass of milk, it would make a meal that would give them some of each of the kinds of foods they needed to be healthy.

After they decided what to cook, the boys got to work. First they helped each other tie cloth napkins around their waists to keep spills off of their clothes.

Then the boys washed the bottoms of their shoes and their hands before getting up on the countertop. (They know real children should not sit or stand on the countertops, but for some things the dolls have to because they are so small.)

Now they were ready to cook. They put water and rice into the big rice cooker.

Emil plugged in the rice cooker. He made sure his hands were dry. He was careful not to get his fingers too close to the electrical outlet, because he didn't want to get a shock.

Billy turned the rice cooker on and set it for the kind of rice they were using. Then the boys mixed the frozen vegetables and cooked chicken with a sauce from a bottle. 

They put it next to the microwave to cook later when the rice was done.

They made a salad with some lettuce, some sprouts and the other vegetables they had cut up.

They baked some cookies from some of Jolena's cookie dough that was in the freezer. They made sure that they had enough for each doll to have one cookie to pretend to eat. Usually that would be seven, but Jolena wasn't going to be eating one, so they baked only six cookies.

They put the vegetables and chicken into the microwave and set it for the time they knew it would take.

While the vegetables and chicken were heating up, they cleaned up after themselves. The other dolls would put their own plates into the dishwasher after they all pretended to eat. The boys could put a few things into the dishwasher now, but they had to wash some things by hand.

Then they washed the countertops, because they had been standing on them. Billy was just closing the dishwasher door when Charlotte came into the kitchen.

"How is it going?" Charlotte asked.

"We're all done now," Billy replied, "except for putting it on the table."

Charlotte looked around. "Where's Emil?" she asked.

Billy looked around, too. He was surprised not to see Emil standing next to him. "I don't know," he said. "He was just here. We were putting some things into the dishwasher."

Charlotte and Billy heard a thumping sound coming from the dishwasher.

When they opened it, there was Emil! 

"Oh, I'm sorry, Emil!" Billy cried. "I must have closed the door without looking to see if you were out!"

"It's OK, Billy," Emil said, as he climbed down. "I'm just glad you didn't turn it on! The dishes need washing, but I don't, and the water might have ruined my special glasses and my hearing aids!"

"Boys," Charlotte said, "please be careful. You should pull the tray out to load the dishes. Climbing inside could be very dangerous."

"Yes," Billy agreed, "I see that now, and I should have looked inside before closing the door!"

"Well," Charlotte said, "It's a good thing we were right here to let you out. You could have been stuck inside there for hours! The doors to dishwashers and refrigerators are hard to open from the inside. The people who make the appliances don't expect dolls to be in there and need to get out."

"I won't do that again!" Emil promised. Just then the rice cooker and the microwave both beeped. It was time to put everything on the table

.
"Let's call the others!" Emil said. "We can pretend to eat!"

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia


Photo of cookies by Isabelle Acheson on Unsplash.
This story appears in the book Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the Book Baby Bookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them for you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart

The Cooking Lesson

Mariah and Billy went looking for Jolena. They found her in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Mariah asked, climbing up on the tall stool Jolena always uses to reach the counter.
"I'm cooking," she said. "I'm making something called burritos for supper."

"What kind of toes?" Billy asked.
"Burr-EE-toes," she replied. It's sort of like supper rolled up in a piece of very flat bread called a tortilla (tor-TEE-ya)," she explained. "It's filled with cooked beans with some sauce and some cheese, and I'm going to slice some avocado on top. I'm cooking the beans now. I have water in the pot, some seasonings and some onions. I just have to add the beans."
"That sounds yummy," said Mariah.

"We're going to have broccoli-kale slaw with it tonight," Jolena said. "I've made it already. It's in the refrigerator.
"I'll bet it's fun to cook," Billy said. "Is it hard to learn how?"
"It isn't too hard," Jolena replied. "You have to learn how to cut things without cutting yourself, and to be careful at the stove, so you don't get burned or catch on fire."

"That sounds scary," Mariah exclaimed.
"Not if you're careful," Jolena said with a laugh. "You have to  tie back your hair, if it's long, and wash your hands before you start. You also have to pay attention to what you're cooking, so it doesn't burn. I usually set a timer, so I don't forget to check the food if I'm doing something else, like helping set the table."

"I'll bet I could learn," Billy said. "Is that all you need to know?"
"Well," Jolena considered, "the most important part is knowing what to cook. When you eat what someone else has cooked for you, you know that they have planned the meal to help you stay strong and healthy because they love you. They have included a variety of foods so all you have to do is enjoy the meal. They have worked to make it taste good, so you will enjoy it. When you cook for others, you have to know how to do this yourself, and they are counting on you to feed them the right things."

"But we're always strong and healthy, unless we pretend to be sick," Mariah pointed out. "We're dolls."
"Yes, but children learn from dolls," Jolena said. "We have to set a good example for them, so they understand why they are eating. We pretend to eat what they should eat. It's why we're here. Parents sometimes worry if children don't eat. Children sometimes think their parents are just being bossy. They need to learn that their parents want them to eat the right things because they love them."

"So we dolls pretend to eat our food so we can show children how much we enjoy it," Mariah suggested, and Jolena nodded.
"How do you know what to cook, then?" asked Billy.
"It isn't hard," Jolena said. "Each day we need some fruit, some vegetables of different colors, some grains like this rice." She took the lid off the rice canister and showed them the rice inside.

"Bread is made from a grain called wheat. We also need milk, and foods that have something called protein. You say it PRO-teen" She said the word slowly. "Those foods are meat, fish, eggs, cheese and dried beans, like these."

"It's good to have some of the vegetables cooked and some raw," Jolena continued. "Then it's important to know how to cook these foods so they taste good."
"How about cake and ice cream?" asked Billy. "I love cake and ice cream!"

"Yes, you missed Charlotte's birthday party, didn't you?" Mariah said. "We had cake, but no ice cream. The cake was yummy."

"Well," said Jolena, "cake, ice cream, candy, cookies and chips are what we call 'extra foods.' That's why you save them until after you eat. We pretend to eat fruits and vegetables, grains, milk and protein foods because they taste good, but also because children's bodies need them. Cake is something we pretend to eat only for how it tastes. Besides, if you pretend to eat cake first, the other foods don't taste as good as they would have if you had saved the cake for later. That takes a lot of the fun out of eating."

"So how do you make the burry-toes?" Billy asked.

"Well, I put the beans, a little spicy sauce and some cheese on the tortilla." Jolena said. "Then I fold it up. I'll make six of them. I put them on a cookie sheet in the oven and cook for half an hour. When they are done, I'll slice some avocado on top. Come back at supper time, and you'll see."

Mariah understood what Jolena said to be a hint that they were keeping her from her work. "Come on, Billy. Let's go see what the others are up to.

When it was time for supper, they saw this on their plates.

It was yummy, and they pretended to eat it all. Jolena is a good cook!
Billy was a bit disappointed that there was no cake for dessert, but he was happy to have a cookie. "I'll bake a cake tomorrow," Jolena promised. Billy said he could wait until then. Then he pretended to be patient.

What do you have for supper?


Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily of London

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook are available from BookBaby and other booksellers worldwide, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Author's page on Amazon. 

Royalties (net proceeds) go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. If you don't get free shipping elsewhere, buy from Book Baby. Half of the price goes to charity (specific information available upon request). Autographed copies of all three books are available from the author. (Multiple books to the same address have a discount on shipping.) To inquire, email thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2019, 2023 by Peggy Stuart

The Boys Cook Dinner

"When did Mandy say Jolena was coming home?" Emil asked Billy as the boys stared at the empty kitchen.

No one was cutting vegetables at the sink. No yummy smells were drifting through the air. No beeps or buzzes or whirring sounds came from the appliances sitting on the countertops.

"I think it was Monday," Billy replied, "but I'm pretty sure she won't feel like cooking for a couple of days. She was pretty tired when she came home from last year's Doll Ski Team practice in South America."

Billy knew that Emil was missing Jolena––he missed Jolena, too––but they also missed her cooking. The dolls hadn't hadn't pretended to eat a really good, home-cooked meal since she had left, and they were missing it. All the dolls could cook, but no one could cook like Jolena! She often organized the other dolls so each one had a job to do. She would show them how to do their jobs correctly. Billy could remember Jolena in the kitchen, teaching and encouraging the other dolls, and would be very happy when she was home again.

"Well, it's our turn to cook," said Emil, turning to look at the refrigerator, which was the first place to start when trying to decide what to have for dinner. "What should we fix?"

"We need to be sure what we fix is good for us," Billy said. "We need something from each of the different food groups."

"Let's fix an extra food, too," Emil said, thinking about cookies or pudding.

"Let's see what's in the refrigerator," Billy said. The boys knew some easy dishes they could cook all by themselves. All they needed to do was see if what they needed was on hand.

There were lettuce, mushrooms, sprouts and other things for salad in the refrigerator. They found some frozen vegetables and cooked chicken in the freezer. There were some bottles and jars of sauces in the pantry. There is always rice. That suggested to them one of the easy things they knew how to fix. If they cooked some rice, heated up the vegetables and chicken with a sauce and gave each doll a glass of milk, it would make a meal that would give them some of each of the kinds of foods they needed to be healthy.

After they decided what to cook, the boys got to work. First they helped each other tie cloth napkins around their waists to keep spills off of their clothes.

Then the boys washed the bottoms of their shoes and their hands before getting up on the countertop. (They know real children should not sit or stand on the countertops, but for some things the dolls have to because they are so small.)

Now they were ready to cook. They put water and rice into the big rice cooker.

Emil plugged in the rice cooker. He made sure his hands were dry. He was careful not to get his fingers too close to the electrical outlet, because he didn't want to get a shock.

Billy turned the rice cooker on and set it for the kind of rice they were using. Then the boys mixed the frozen vegetables and cooked chicken with a sauce from a bottle. 

They put it next to the microwave to cook later when the rice was done.

They made a salad with some lettuce, some sprouts and the other vegetables they had cut up.

They baked some cookies from some of Jolena's cookie dough that was in the freezer. They made sure that they had enough for each doll to have one cookie to pretend to eat. Usually that would be seven, but Jolena wasn't going to be eating one, so they baked only six cookies.

They put the vegetables and chicken into the microwave and set it for the time they knew it would take.

While the vegetables and chicken were heating up, they cleaned up after themselves. The other dolls would put their own plates into the dishwasher after they all pretended to eat. The boys could put a few things into the dishwasher now, but they had to wash some things by hand.

Then they washed the countertops, because they had been standing on them. Billy was just closing the dishwasher door when Charlotte came into the kitchen.

"How is it going?" Charlotte asked.

"We're all done now," Billy replied, "except for putting it on the table."

Charlotte looked around. "Where's Emil?" she asked.

Billy looked around, too. He was surprised not to see Emil standing next to him. "I don't know," he said. "He was just here. We were putting some things into the dishwasher."

Charlotte and Billy heard a thumping sound coming from the dishwasher.

When they opened it, there was Emil! 

"Oh, I'm sorry, Emil!" Billy cried. "I must have closed the door without looking to see if you were out!"

"It's OK, Billy," Emil said, as he climbed down. "I'm just glad you didn't turn it on! The dishes need washing, but I don't, and the water might have ruined my special glasses and my hearing aids!"

"Boys," Charlotte said, "please be careful. You should pull the tray out to load the dishes. Climbing inside could be very dangerous."

"Yes," Billy agreed, "I see that now, and I should have looked inside before closing the door!"

"Well," Charlotte said, "It's a good thing we were right here to let you out. You could have been stuck inside there for hours! The doors to dishwashers and refrigerators are hard to open from the inside. The people who make the appliances don't expect dolls to be in there and need to get out."

"I won't do that again!" Emil promised. Just then the rice cooker and the microwave both beeped. It was time to put everything on the table

.
"Let's call the others!" Emil said. "We can pretend to eat!"

Cast--
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia


Photo of cookies by Isabelle Acheson on Unsplash.
This story appears in the book Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Coming soon: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them for you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Copyright © 2020, 2025 by Peggy Stuart