A Cornbread and Cabbage Day

Well, we finally did get a good shower.  I hope we get more. 

When Eler Beth first started home schooling she asked if she could make dinner on Wednesdays.  I thought that would be a great idea, and we could use that time as a cooking lesson.  There are all kinds of things we can incorporate into that -- from measuring, nutrition, and food groups all the way to aesthetics of serving colorful meals, and proper table settings!

Most of the time she decides the menu and then preps and cooks everything under my supervision, doing most everything that needs to be done.  She has always been a natural observer, and since she was very little has always helped me in the kitchen.  I can remember one time when I was sick she helped her dad fix dinner one night, and he told me she corrected him on just about everything he did because she knew the way that "Momma does it", and apparently Dad was doing it wrong.

Last week she decided she wanted pork chops, mashed potatoes, green peas, and applesauce for dinner.  "But I don't want them fixed that one way you fix them sometimes.  I want to bread and fry them."  So we didn't broil them, we had them the more fattening (and very tasty) way.  (And we even made gravy to boot!)   She did a great job of everything, too!

Well, today she said she didn't know what she wanted for dinner, so I could choose.  I said, "I'm in the mood for cornbread and cabbage."

She wrinkled her nose.  "I like cooked cabbage, but that's not all we'll have, is it?"

"Why not?  I can make a meal out of cornbread and cabbage.  And I know your dad can."

"Well, I really think we ought to represent all the food groups, don't you?"

Well, I couldn't argue with that. 

My suggestion of corned beef and cabbage didn't go over well (I'm the only who likes it.)  So I told her that a day like today was a good day to pull out something that we'd cooked ahead of time and frozen or that was left over from a previous meal.  Then while rummaging around in the freezer we found some kielbasa, which is good with cabbage and which the kids like as well, so we're going to have that.  Then I suggested homemade macaroni and cheese.  We'll not worry about a yellow vegetable tonight.  Hopefully that will all go over well with the menfolk, and we do have each food group represented. 

Two weeks ago we made homemade cookies for dessert on Wednesday.  This is my mother's scratch-cake recipe that I cut in half and thicken to a cookie-dough instead of a cake dough.  I don't roll them out and cut them, I just drop them from a spoon onto a cookie sheet.  They're quick to make, buttery, sweet, and very, very good.  The first time I ever made them for Thomas he called them tea-cakes.  He said down South that's what they would have called them.  I used to (before we had kids) get up at 4 in the morning and bake him some fresh to take to work with him.  (Prepared the dough the night before)

Anyway, Eler Beth made them that day with my directions.  The next day she was busy in the kitchen on her own for awhile, asking me not to come in until she called me (that's always a scary thing for a parent, when their child asks them to stay out of a room!).  When I was allowed to enter my kitchen she showed me a new "recipe" she'd come up with.  She'd remembered the directions to make the "scratch" cookies, and she'd added two mashed bananas to the mix.  They were very, very, good banana cookies!  I was impressed!

Tonight I think we'll have the rest of a pineapple/orange cake that I bought a couple days ago, along with ice cream if anyone wants it.  Some day she's going to be so good in the kitchen, that she can handle Wednesday dinner without any help from me at all, and I'll be able to kick up my feet and enjoy the results without any of the labor.  Sometimes it's good when they start to grow up!

Tags: cornbread and cabbage, cooking, polska kielbasa