Kings and Jesters

We are an equal opportunity household where holidays are concerned.  It may be because they give inspiration for themed foods, and food is love you know.  It is also a way to teach the kids about different cultures and expand their tastes.  We celebrate all of our families traditional holidays but we also recognize everything from Passover to Kwanzaa to Mardi Gras (oh and we also celebrate Julia Child's birthday:).

In honor of Fat Tuesday, I laid out a delicious jambalaya but most importantly a beautiful King Cake.  I have made many yeast based breads and confections, yet this is the first time I was really challenged.  I have always left a covered bowl on our interior kitchen countertop for doughs to rise. Hmm, I guess even though it is 10 degrees outside and I keep the house at 67, that doesn't make yeast happy at all!  Once I figured this out, I warmed the oven slightly and let it rise in there, and that did the trick.

As with any good King Cake, I put a little 'baby' in it.  This was a special baby, a festive lego mini fig jester who was dressed for the day.

Growing, Cooking & Learning

We've really been focusing on using the produce we have stored and I've found that my grocery bills have been significantly diminished so far this winter! Last year we used what we had, but oh so sparingly. It was almost like I was paying homage to it. It was all so carefully stored I hated to disturb it. Almost like all of the summer work we had done was too pretty a picture to disrupt. Totally crazy! So, this year we have been digging in with wild abandon and loving every minute. I still feel a bit wistful as the beautifully displayed mason jars diminish, but it's been well worth it.

We are such foodies. I think I'm raising a mini-foodie too. We've developed quite a web and cookbook collection. My most recent acquisition is "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and I've been cooking from it all week. Sidney has seen me putting together a casserole roast chicken and gotten out her own little cookbook and made the accompanying muffins.

The food frenzy of the grown-ups, using wonderful new recipes with what we've mostly grown, must be catching. Today Sid's cooked breakfast for us and this afternoon made us all egg nog from scratch. I love that she's enthusiastic about cooking and I hope that she can see how much fun and how rewarding it is too. We spent the evening with a few foodie friends cooking impossibly difficult recipes, laughing at the chaos of preparation, and then relishing in the rewards. I've learned that even the most challenging of recipe's is doable. I look forward to continuing to find new and innovative ways to utilize the treasures stored in my root cellar. As I write this, Brian is turning some of our gorgeous summer tomatoes into a savory spaghetti pie and I didn't even have to run out to the grocery store to pick anything up!

Bon Appetite!