Kitchen Staff

All those sleepless nights, dirty diapers and spit-up are starting to payoff 10 years later! Having girls who are 10 and 11 is starting to work to my advantage! A few Sundays ago I didn't feel like cooking or even had a clue as to what to make for dinner. I know the kids love breakfast for dinner and that would be a special treat for them. When I announced what we would have for dinner the kids got excited and when I made my second announcement that the girls would be cooking dinner the girls were totally excited!

Alex and Rachel cooked eggs, hash browns with cheese, sausage and pancakes! They did a great job cooking and even kicked me out of the kitchen until it was time to eat. They made so much food we had leftover breakfast for dinner for breakfast the next morning!

I can get use to this kind of treatment, I don't mind passing the buck to a couple of naive girls who are in the midst of learning how to cook! They have fun and I get the night off!

Domestic Divas

I was feeling a little domestic a few weeks ago and ordered 64 pounds of peaches to can. I was smart and did get my sister-in-law Lindy in on it with me! We spent an evening last week canning our peaches and having fun talking as we snacked on ice cream sandwiches. Word to the wise don't start canning at 7 o'clock at night it's better to start this project early in the morning!

¡Mm, Qué Rico!

My sister-in-law, Kiersten, invited me over to learn how to make tamales yesterday. Her friend, Rona, came over to teach us and it was way fun to learn to cook something new. Now I understand why tamales are only made a few times a year: they are a lot of work. As with any kind of hard work you get to reap the rewards, in this case my tummy gets to reap the rewards. The process from start to finish with 4 people helping took 4 hours yielding about 80 tamales.

You would think growing up with the last name Chavez I would know how to make this delightful dish unfortunately this is one dish my family never made! Oh and we also learned how to make homemade corn tortillas…. ¡Mm, qué rico!

Fend For Your Self … I'm taking the night off!

I have decided to institute a new program in our home, "Fend for Yourself Night" which will take place at least once a week. This means that each individual is on their own to fix their own dinner for the evening and clean up the mess. They can have anything their little or big heart's desire, left overs, cereal, frozen waffles and sandwiches, I don't care what they choose to eat. They know how to boil water (mac n' cheese) use a microwave, and they know how to spread peanut butter on bread. Why not put these skills to good use!

The reason I've started this is because on some nights I don't feel like cooking or even want to think about what to cook and maybe I'm not even that hungry and snacking will suit my nutritional needs--so why am I gonna cook a meal!. I have a wonderful husband who cooks and picks up the slack for me, but sometimes we need the night off.

I like to believe I'm training my kids to be independent and self-reliant. Plus it's kind of fun watching them...Fend for Themselves!

Cooking 101

Alex cooked rice pudding today all by herself. I stood by just to capture the Kodak moment

She measured out all her ingredients

Waiting for the ingredients to boil and photo opp with mom.

Voila...it's ready to be chilled:

The taste testers...

Two Thumbs Up!!! It was delicious. I'm so proud of Alex this was her first time cooking, aside from boiling water to make hot chocolate. She is becoming a lovely young lady.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Food, Family & Friends

The End.

Food Storage

I wanted to show off my nice organized pantry it took me almost 2 hours to clean out last night. I found 2 boxes of cake mix that were about to expire so I guess my family will be forced to eat cake for a couple of weeks. I wonder how long my pantry will stay this clean? Anyone willing to place a wager?

And a big thank you to my friend Lucinda for letting me tag along last Friday when she went grocery shopping, Fry's was having a case lot sale and we both did some damage. I think I bought to much tomato sauce/tomato soup, can you have to much of that stuff? I do know you can never have enough cream of chicken soup, I have 30 cans and I'm proud of it!