Through The Looking Glass

Quickly, while Sam is driving his Matchbox cars around on a Playmobil castle–

Last night’s dinner was good enough that it prompted Will to ask if we can please eat like that more often. Which was totally a compliment except it made me feel like a rotten wife for not cooking like that all the time. But let me back up.

Several weeks ago I bought a ton of fresh chilies at the farmer’s market, insanely cheap, and made some chili with them by cooking them with an onion and I think some garlic and a beer until everything was soft. I then froze the whole mess. This weekend I put up a pan of pinto beans to soak, and yesterday I made the world’s hottest chili (and by hot I mean picanté). While I was prepping the sides, Sam asked to help. He wanted to sit on my back, but it turns out that doesn’t work so well in the kitchen (piggyback is how I carry him most of the time, now that he holds on). The Ergo was down in the car so I grabbed the sling and did this:

I just used the hip carry and swung him around. So easy. All I had to adjust was the fabric over my boob. I know, HOT. It’s comfier than it looks.

He stayed with me while I chopped up stuff for Cassie’s Southwestern Salad, which has corn and bell peppers and zucchini and other good stuff in it and is OMG delicious. I grabbed a small mixing bowl to use for my peels and stuff and I am a convert: Rachael Ray got one thing right. If you know how much her 30 Minute Meals annoy me, you know how hard it is for me to admit that. Now I guess I finally know who I hate more, Rachael Ray or Rachel Ashwell. Oh, who am I kidding–I still hate them equally. I just like the garbage bowl while I’m cooking.

We also chopped up some garnet sweet potatoes and fingerling potatoes (the French kind, which it turns out I don’t love as much as the Russian kind), which we roasted with olive oil, salt, and cumin. I added a little margarine when they were done.

The meal was insanely delicious. I roasted a chicken boob with some paprika for Will, and we both had some plain yogurt with our chili (so picanté) and it was really really good.

And Sam helped! Who knew a hand-me-down sling would come to so very much good use? (Thank you, Stephanie!)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under domestic goddess, life, the universe, and unschooling . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.