Kitchen Help

Blackberry Lemon and Thyme Muffins

I'm not sure what motivated my recent cooking and baking frenzy. My suspicion is that it probably has something to do with my vain attempt to bake my way back to feeling like the most important person in my children's lives.

The Daughter was home from university for Reading Week. On her last weekend before returning to school I bake TWICE. Blackberry Lemon and Thyme Muffins are delicious. Fresh thyme is an unusual but not-to-be-left-out ingredient. The Daughter eats two at one sitting.

The Beamer likes to check out what's going on in the kitchen

My nephew Colin has inspired me to try Bacon Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies. The saltiness of the bacon is perfectly complemented by the sweet raisins. The cookies are very good but don't further my cause with the Adolescent as he's "not really feeling" the bacon. He used to LOVE bacon! There were regular Sunday breakfast arguments over who would get first dibs on the best and most perfect strips. How far we've fallen.

The Daughter baking

I read an article in the March issue of Bon Appetit magazine about one restaurant that gets potential hires to make 3 things in their "interview" for a job in the restaurant kitchen: roast chicken, salad, and chocolate cake. These 3 things are very simple and basic but apparently tell a lot about a person's cooking skills. The Daughter makes a chocolate cake. Apparently not her best effort. We argue over the frosting (although it's about much more than the frosting!). I'm sure this has impacted the finished product. 

The Hubby and the Beamer

I make dinner on Sunday. Ostensibly to honour the Daughter's last dinner before going back to school. But really it's to make myself indispensable to my children. And to test out my chances of being hired in a restaurant kitchen. The Hubby is unsure if I would get the job anyway given how messy a cook I am. Isn't that what a good Kitchen Bitch is for?


In between all this cooking and baking there is lots of parent/child drama with both the Adolescent and the Daughter. In the Adolescent's case it is about him always thinking that he needs me less than how much I think he needs me. With the Daughter it is about our adjustment to relate to each other anew now that she is a young adult. I would like to deal with both these parental challenges with grace but as usual it's a messy sloppy affair.

Roast Chicken

Roast chicken to the rescue! I use an organic bird. The meat is moist and flavourful although it does smoke up in the oven due to the butter that's basted frequently on the skin. However, it's worth the risk of smoke alarms sounding.

The salad dressing is very simple but delicious. I think the key flavour ingredient is anchovy. Not something I normally use but definitely will again.

I would hire me! Kitchen help with drama.

Happy Birthday Scarlett!

We also squeeze in a family dinner party for Scarlett's 9th birthday. Trish and Richard cook up a storm. Home-made guacamole, shrimps coated in panko and potato flour before being quickly sauteed into a crunchy delicious taste sensation. Fresh salad rolls made by Scarlett herself. A chocolate and pear upside down birthday cake.

Trish and the Daughter admiring the new espresso machine

There are also perfect and delicious cappuccinos made by Trish on her new home espresso machine!

The Beamer smells thyme

For my Christmas gift this year the Hubby transferred all our old 8mm video tapes from when the kids were very young to DVDs. Hours and hours of footage of our beautiful children doing the most mundane things. Eating spaghetti, pointing at Mommy's nose, pointing at the light, kissing the doll, singing, dancing. On and on it goes.








Our children wonder if we had a life back then. I tell them that THIS WAS OUR LIFE! And we LOVED it! Marveling at our fascinating children, at their cleverness, at their adorableness. Our entire lives, or at least the part that's on film, revolved around them. And the best part was that they felt the same about us. No wonder it's so hard to let them go now.