Tonight's Supper

9/30/2010
What's for dinner?
Tonight it is Baked & Fried Cod Fillets, Oven fries made with potatoes out of the garden, half red and half white, homemade potato chips for Anthony (everyone else had to have a few, too), cole slaw made from our neighbor's garden cabbage, and hush puppies (only because I was frying, which I very rarely do these days!
I had lots of help tonight, because Anthony was in the kitchen.  He is always one of my best helpers these days.  It reminds me of the days when Jake or Jared sat on the counter, or pulled up a chair and helped me wash potatoes and learned to cut up veggies for a salad.  Those were some pretty amazing times, times that we talked and laughed and made up recipes with pretend bugs and snails.  Jes was more serious in the kitchen, and since she was my first child, I was much more paranoid about her cutting and grating and all.  By the time the boys came around, I realized that the more you let them do, the more they enjoyed the cooking AND the eating part of what we prepared.
It never ceases to amaze me the conversations that begin and continue in that space, the kitchen.  No matter what shape, or condition it's in, it always seems to be the heart of our home.  It's where we greet guests, where they hang out and watch me cook, or where they help with whatever they can.  It's truly the best place in the house to be if you want to know what's going on in our lives.
Tomorrow night will be quiet, because the kids will be at home and James and I will be alone for dinner.  I will still prepare a meal, it just might be a wedge salad or a quick stirfry out of the garden, but I will still do my best to honor those who have gone before me, and taught me.  That it is fulfilling to teach the young how to feed themselves, and to take pride in how my hands and heart can turn a few ingredients into a nourishing meal, for the body and the soul.