A Sort of Hobby

Cooking is almost always fun... For me anyways. Over the last year I've rediscovered how much I really enjoy cooking meals and experimenting with new dishes, recipes and even playing with old favorites from my childhood. There's even been baking re-emerging in my repertoire, though any kind of baking is on a temporary hiatus until the weather cools down some again. 

With Princess being 11 years old now I decided that she is more than ready (and old enough) to help out with dinner prep and cooking. This summer she's done mostly lunches for us - soup & sandwiches, but I try to get her involved in one evening meal a week.  She even went so far as to cook breakfast (scrambled eggs with cheese) for Angel Face on her birthday. Here you see her helping chop celery for some homemade cream of potatoe and ham soup... Which just happens to be one of her current favorite meals. 

With temperatures soaring into, and staying in the high 30's (that's degrees Celsius) during parts of the summer this year I had to become somewhat creative with making filling but cold (served) dishes. There have been a lot of ceaser salads (with and without a meat topping), raw veggie salads (ie. greek salad) and, pictured here, even a cold crab pasta salad with veggies. 

But no matter the weather or the season, sometimes I just crave some good ole, classic comfort food. Chilli on a rainy day. And this week I got the urge to do fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans with mushrooms. (Seen it this photo.) 

And do you want to know my favorite part about cooking all these various meals for my family? The 20-30 minutes we are all sitting at the table together eating and talking about our days. In the last year, except for when the kids or Heli-Dad or myself have been away, we all eat together at the table, we spend time talking to each other about what we did that day, about our plans for the coming days, and we all have to pick just one thing that was our favorite part of that days... Invariably, for me it's that moment right then when we're all together.  Here you see my favorite moment, on that day when Princess helped me make the soup. It even includes a couple extra bodies in it, but that also happens once every couple of weeks. 

Well, I hope everyone is having a great summer and that you're all surviving the varied, strange weather we've been getting. 

Until next time...