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I've spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen cooking with the kids, and really dug it. We had butternut squash, steamed and mashed with butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper, for lunch, and brownies for tea and right now there is a roast chicken, green bean casserole, steamed brussel sprouts and garlic parmesean mashed potatoes nearing doneness. FREAKING YUM. Also this all started with a grocery trip with just Ananda, Aaron and I, where we bought supplies for this stuff and also breakfast tomorrow - french toast with oatmeal bread and maple syrup, and mushroom and cheddar omelettes. FREAKING YUM!! We were looking for little baking pumpkins for pies and bread, but alas there were only big carvers so far for jack o lanterns. I LOVE this time of year that's starting...
This is as good a time as any to tell you all that I love to cook...a lot of the time people seem to say things to me like "What are you putting yourself through?" or "I just can't imagine spending all that time in the kitchen..." as if I'm showing off or in a competition - I did it when I was in high school and had no kids, though. For my friends, and my school lunches, and my dinners when I lived with my grandparents who didn't even eat dinner. My house was the afterschool spot for stir fries and "pan concoctions" (just the phrase could make my best friends drool). I'm really not some sort of nutrition martyr so much as I just like spending my time preparing food. I escape TO the kitchen, as Nigella Lawson says. And so often it's such an easy way to go on autopilot and be engaging the kids, interacting with them, teaching them - without planning anything or going out or whatever.
I've been thinking some lately about how I feel I do a good job providing one on one attention to each of my kids, despite having several of them, and I maintain most of my standards as new babies get thrown in (playing outside, bedtime routines, yada yada). I even keep things cleaner now than I did with two. But my safety standards have really slipped as the clan has grown. I'm not sure if it's dangerous at this point, as I was paranoid as hell before...but it's definitely different. ( Feel free to click, read and give your opinion...just be up front, no locked entries in your journals about how CPS needs to come pick my kids up! )
This is as good a time as any to tell you all that I love to cook...a lot of the time people seem to say things to me like "What are you putting yourself through?" or "I just can't imagine spending all that time in the kitchen..." as if I'm showing off or in a competition - I did it when I was in high school and had no kids, though. For my friends, and my school lunches, and my dinners when I lived with my grandparents who didn't even eat dinner. My house was the afterschool spot for stir fries and "pan concoctions" (just the phrase could make my best friends drool). I'm really not some sort of nutrition martyr so much as I just like spending my time preparing food. I escape TO the kitchen, as Nigella Lawson says. And so often it's such an easy way to go on autopilot and be engaging the kids, interacting with them, teaching them - without planning anything or going out or whatever.
I've been thinking some lately about how I feel I do a good job providing one on one attention to each of my kids, despite having several of them, and I maintain most of my standards as new babies get thrown in (playing outside, bedtime routines, yada yada). I even keep things cleaner now than I did with two. But my safety standards have really slipped as the clan has grown. I'm not sure if it's dangerous at this point, as I was paranoid as hell before...but it's definitely different. ( Feel free to click, read and give your opinion...just be up front, no locked entries in your journals about how CPS needs to come pick my kids up! )
