So tonight I had planned for dinner grilled chicken breasts, couscous, and the greens that were in last weeks csa bag that we had not eaten yet. (We had eaten everything else, including the onion that we sliced and put on our hamburgers last night and the other half of same onion sliced and roasted with the new potatoes on the grill with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mmmm.) Anyhoo, tonight was different because PJ's friend came over to test the paint on/in our house for lead. (With a couple of possible outside exceptions we are negative- Wahoo!!!) And it was our week to pick up from the co-op and deliver the csa bags to our 2 local co-csa-ers. Ava and I left and immediately hit traffic due to the construction on Crescent (they are putting in brick crosswalks and it is super pretty!) and the drive was difficult. But we got there, and delivered our fare and returned home unscathed. When we returned, PJ's friend was gone, and I asked PJ what he would like for dinner. He said he wasn't really hungry (he had the leftover giant cheeseburger for lunch with leftover salad so can't blame him) but he would make me whatever I wanted. I said there's no sense cooking up all that chicken, so I would improvise. I knew that the greens needed to be cooked, as we had new greens this week. I cooked greens last week (from the week before? or maybe we got lots...) with a recipe I found online that turned out pretty good. I didn't remember where I put the recipe, so I decided to wing it. And the fresh basil in this weeks bag inspired me to make some pasta with pesto and parmesan to go with the greens. So I get to cooking. PJ meantime had made the children meat sandwiches, which consists of various combinations of the following: turkey, ham, mayo, mustard, and cheese. He and Ava eventually left for the gym, and James and I visited while he continued to eat his meat sandwich. I remembered when cooking the greens last time that I thought there was too much chicken stock, so I used less than I remember putting in last time. It was about 1/3 cup stock, and in that I put minced garlic, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper. Heated it up, and put in the greens, turned down the heat and let it cook and steam and absorb the chicken stock. Then made the pasta (cooked in more stock) and mixed it with pesto, fresh grated parmesan, and some chopped basil. Soooo gooood. I went into the dining room to sit with James, and he took quite an interest in my plate. I am always willing to share, but tonight I didn't share the greens as I put in a lot of the crushed red pepper and they were way too spicy for him. But I gave him a piece of penne, and he looked at it and continued to holler. Now he has been doing this thing lately that he likes to take his bites off his plate. Mind you, if you put the plate on the tray, he will still dump it onto the floor, but if you hold it for him, he will find the exact right piece for that moment in time. I didn't think he would eat it- I was sure it would end up on the floor and Fred would eat it, but lo and behold, he loved it! So I let him have at as much pasta as he wanted. And he had quite a bit. So now, although Ava only eats like 5 things without complaint (one of which is pancakes which I made this morning) my heart glows to think that one day our son will eat the food that we prepare for him and not be limited to 5 items or less. Aaahhhhhhh....
(edited to add: photo courtesy of wikipedia, and sorry for all the parentheses!)
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