Welcome to 2011!

Hard to believe, but yes, here we are in 2011.  When I say two-thousand-eleven it sounds very....futuristic.  And yet we're just recovering from another year's worth of holiday visits, parties and fun, housekeeping, exercise, resolutions and not-enough-sleep.

I had a quick reminder this weekend that in spite of the normalcy, time does indeed slip by.  We recovered from our holiday travels and parties (more about that later!) and on Sunday, after a morning outing, I passed the most recent issue of Cooking Light to my daughter in the back seat and let her choose a menu for dinner.  She spent about 10 minutes flipping through the pages and selected "a side dish - carrots- and a dinner."  We made glazed carrots and a linguini with soft-boiled eggs, breadcrumbs and walnuts. 

I asked her why she chose those particular dishes and she said "because I like carrots.  And this one," pointing at the pasta with a halved egg, yolks shining brightly, "because it seemed like something we would want to eat on this kind of day."  It was chilly, grey, overcast and I have to agree that a sunny egg in a pasta nest did seem...well, cozy.

We pulled into the grocery store parking lot.  She read me the ingredient list while I made the shopping list.  My daughter is not an avid "fake...I mean fiction" reader, but she handles a recipe pretty well.  We shopped, we went home, we played and eventually, we cooked.

This is when it felt like a new year to me.

She took the carrots on herself, peeling and chopping before I was done pulling other ingredients from the cupboard.  She stirred the saute pan, counting the minutes, and added spices and other ingredients without hesitation.  She peeled the soft-boiled eggs and nesteled them in the plates.  Her brother manned the pasta pot.

My son remarked on my daughter's cooking later, while we were eating "she's already way ahead of me."  And she is. 

It feels good to know that they're learning something useful, something of substance, when we make dinner.

I hope 2011 holds the promise of some more meals and adventures together.  For you too.