Little Chef

Our little Zekie loves to mess around with food. Actually all the kiddos love to help bake and cook, or try to come up with their own recipes, but Zekie has always had a thing for 'playing' with food. Since about the time he was getting solid food he would take it off his plate and pretend to cut it into smaller pieces, mix one with another, smoosh some together, and after he couldn't mix or smoosh anymore he would finally eat it. Yesterday he became the Little Chef with salsa, my tea, some lemons, salt, and left over lunch. At one point he tried it and said "its super yucky". Ha, love the honesty.

adding special ingredients

having fun mixing and pouring

oops, spilled a little water

mix.mix.mix  stir.stir.stir

Grae thought Little Chef was pretty funny

having fun watching the Little Chef show

Momma Chef headed in the kitchen as well. Made a few recipes from the new cookbooks Jon bought me. (see the gifts that give back over and over). I made the vegan strawberry cake... I'm not sure what it was actually called as I don't have the book in front of me and I do not feel like getting up to check (its been a long day, lol, so yup I'm being lazy). Its basically a dense vanilla cake that you bake and then you make a near jam out of some fresh strawberries and pile on the top after it cools. I think it would be better with some small chocolate chips bake in and forget the strawberries. Anyways - I also made some caramelized onions with lentils and rice (I could have just eaten the onions -- thanks to pregnancy cravings I had with Shortie I have fallen in love with those sweet things and could eat them like candy even to this day) Also made some naan bread from scratch (vegan naan bread) baked right on the bbq - so good.

Naan bread resting before getting grilled

horrible picture -and it looks kinda burnt - it wasn't, but it was so good we were eating it right  after taking it off the heat - I saw my camera and thought  I should take a picture real quick before the last three were eaten

After we put all the kids to bed and were done stairs watching another documentary something startled Conrad and woke up the little man. Usually he'll just go back to sleep but for whatever reason this night he came down stairs. He stood at the entry to the living room with this ever so innocent look that you just knew was hiding a guilty thought. As soon as I said, "You can come here". The innocent look changed to a silly little smirk and came running over with arms wide open and a giggle to follow. He jumped right in my lap and cuddled up. I knew I should put him back to bed but I didn't want to give up my cuddles. They grow so quickly, and even though Conrad thought he was getting special time, I was the one really getting special time and I was doing it all out of selfishness. The night progressed and we wanted to try some of the cake. I told Conrad that he wasn't allowed to have any because it was past bedtime and he already brushed his teeth, but Jon was a weaky and shared --- even shared a little chocolate with him. We rarely have desserts so Conrad was thrilled.

special treatment