Cooking - A Lost Art

I've been realizing more and more lately that cooking has become a lost art. Being able to cook a beautiful meal is something that less and less people know how to do. I get the impression it is because their mothers never took the time to teach them how to cook.

I love cooking.. ask anybody that knows me, and they will tell you that I LOVE to cook. This morning my husband asked me "Why is everything you cook so good?" That was such a huge compliment to me! Pretty much as nice of a compliment as him saying "You look beautiful today." So I got to thinking, how can I pass this knowledge and love for food/cooking on to our children? Well luckily I have been blessed with a son that loves to cook almost as much as I do - actually I think he loves the finished product more than cooking it right now, but every time I ask if he wants to help cook, he is very quick to pull the chair up and help throw ingredients in a bowl.

One thing I KNOW he loves are books... he begs us to read books to him all hours of the day. So I had the idea to combine MY love of cooking with HIS love of books. Today was our first day. There are so many books that talk about food or are written about a particular dish. So once a week I am planning on digging out a new book and making up a new recipe to goes along with the book and getting Eli to help me make it! We had so much fun doing this today.. we even made it to the library for the first time EVER and I got a library card:) SO here is how our morning went ----

We went to the library and picked out a new book called "Strega Nona." While there is not actually a recipe in this book, the book is written about Italy and a girl that lives in Italy and cooks yummy pasta in a magic pasta pot. So Eli and I cooked up some pasta, made our own sauce, and consumed firsts and seconds while reading our new book. It was perfection and I CAN NOT wait for next week!

Spaghetti Sauce

1/4 Yellow Onion

2 Roma Tomatoes

1 T. Olive Oil

3 Basil Leaves

A sprig of Oregano

1 Clove of Garlic

Simmer all ingredients in a pot for 10-15 minutes. 

Place in a blender and puree

Season with salt and pepper

**Optional - I added 1/4 c. shredded Parmesan and it was mmmm mmmm goood!

Pour over pasta and devour like Eli did

Check back next week for Apple Pie!!

Elijah - 17 Months

You guys, the sweetest boy on earth will be 17 months old on Easter Sunday. How? What? Where has the time gone? There have been SO many changes in the past few months I'm shocked. I mean I thought when he was popping out teeth and learning to crawl and walk, that he was changing fast... Little did I know, it just keeps happening. 

He is learning about 5 new words/phrases a day. "Outside!" "Dono(I don't know)" "Ee Ya (see ya)" "Grandma" "Papa" and SO many more are his current words of choice. 

My all time favorite thing that Eli is obsessed with right now is praying. Every time we sit down to eat, or get ready for bed, or even for NO REASON WHAT SO EVER.... He folds his hands until I start praying. As soon as I say "In Jesus name" he says..... "Eema (amen)" yeah my heart explodes on a very regular basis.

This boy is so special to us, there are no words for it. I never could have imagined that my life could so easily revolve around one sweet little boy. Which makes this whole fever thing just that much more challenging. But we push on and he continues to change constantly.