yum

One nice thing about being on leave is that I've had the time (and general wherewithal) to cook more. Our veg. and meat farm shares have been inspiring, as have a couple of food blogs spun off of mom blogs that I follow. And it's gotten cooler, so roasting is appealing again. This past weekend (tonight included):

- corn, potato, red pepper and ham soup
(also made and froze kale and beef soup)

- roast pork (shoulder) glazed with this awesome yuzu & honey jelly that my mom gave us, with roasted brussels sprouts and baked sweet potatoes (it is pretty amazingly nice to hear one's four-year-old ask for "more brussels sprouts, please"-- and in fact, to like them oneself. I'd thought they were my last holdover of detested foods from my childhood, until I had some roasted while out to eat on Thursday evening, and was instantly converted)

- granola bars (with Sam)

- skillet roasted chicken on top of sliced bread, with roasted broccoli

And *all* the meat and veggies were from the shares.

I promise not to turn this into a food blog... but it's been fun. I really like that Sam knows where food comes from, both the growing and the preparation. We visited the farm where our meat comes from mid-summer, and sometimes talk about the various ingredients in our dinner and where they came from (Trader Joe's!) Sam also loves to help cook: shucking corn, peeling carrots, measuring oats and nuts and other granola ingredients. Tonight, unprompted, he asked who made the food. I asked him to guess, and he guessed, Daddy? (somewhat mystifyingly, given that J. had just gotten home and I'd been cooking for some time). When he learned that I'd made it, he thanked me (again, unprompted, though he'd heard both J. and me thank each other on multiple previous occasions I guess) and then asked J. to do the same. Heh.