While I really enjoy cooking during the cold winter months, I can’t wait to start using the BBQ more often now that the weather has gotten warm. Many of our winter meals are rich, warm, and filling - a lot of comfort foods. We try to avoid the oven when the weather gets hot, so many of our meals are based on using the stove top and the outdoor cooker, though I do use my electric slow cooker all year-round. I do find coming up with summer meal ideas to be more of a challenge for some reason, so I think I need to start scouting around the recipe sites for some fresh ideas for this year.
We recently ate dinner at a neighbor’s house and the meal was delicious and simple. Along with some tossed tomato pasta and some grilled chicken, they made some scrumptious grilled veggies that were absolutely wonderful. They simply sliced up the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise, coated them in some olive oil and grilled them outside on the BBQ. Simple, healthy, and delicious!
Yesterday we celebrated Easter with our family at my sister’s house. Now, even though as adults we should know better, we still start the holiday digging into the kids baskets with them. Well, we actually eat some of the candy that didn’t make it into the baskets rather than taking their candy. It’s a bit of gorging of course, but we figure it’s only one time a year so why not. Then after we rest and read the morning paper, we treat ourselves to a big breakfast of French toast or pancakes with bacon and lots of syrup and juice. After Church it’s off to the big family get together, where we eat again.
So the family dinner includes ham, roast beef, mashed potatoes, biscuits, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, and more. After sitting around chatting and stuffing ourselves we usually try to get some fresh air and make room for dessert- a perfect time for the kids to do an Easter egg hunt. Why do so many holidays revolve around food? Of course along with dessert there is usually a second round of Easter candy to go around. After all of the sugar and food, it’s no wonder we all crash early for the night.
So who’s coming to your Thanksgiving feast? Or maybe you’re the one hitting the road and visiting friends and family at their place instead. That’s the easy part. But if you’re the one hosting the dinner at your home, it takes a bit of planning and shopping to make a nice holiday meal. The first thing to do is figure out what size bird you’re going to need, so you’ll need to get a solid idea on the number of people you’ll be feeding. Once you know that, you’ll want to pad the pounds a bit so you can enjoy some leftovers during the week. If you’re doing all of the cooking you certainly deserve to have some extra food to eat throughout the week
Now the tricky part is trying to please everyone. For instance, you might have a few vegetarians in the family, so you’ll want to make sure you have some dishes they’ll enjoy during the meal - you can ask them what they like or they might even prefer to make them at their homes and bring it over for the holiday. You probably also want to make sure you have a few favorites that everyone enjoys, so everyone get a taste of their favorite side dish or dessert.
While we haven’t even had a chance to enjoy Halloween, people on the radio on mentioning how many shopping days are left until Christmas! Forget a mention of Thanksgiving - is it because there just isn’t enough money to be made marketing that particular holiday? Well I for one wish it would just slow down a bit and that the stores would stop pushing Christmas before we’ve had a chance to enjoy living in the moment and the current holiday.
Halloween is fun but Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite food holidays and family get-togethers. I enjoy the big turkey and all of the delicious side dishes. And what’s not to love about all the yummy pies and desserts. While writing this I do realize it might sound like I love it most of all for the food, but truly it’s also fun to be with some of my favorite relatives and siblings. Especially when we cook together for the day - half the fun is messing around in the kitchen together. Cleaning it up is another story!
It seems most of us end up running around all week long- whether its spending time at work and school, or running the many errands and carting the kids off to sporting games and play dates. So when the weekend finally rolls around we simply look forward to making time for some good old-fashioned family fun and much-needed precious rest and relaxation. While some people seem to prefer to pack their weekends with things to do, a lot of us prefer to try to schedule as few things as possible and take a break from the constant feeling of being on the go.
Top on the list is skipping the alarm clock and catching up on some much-needed sleep. Then there’s making time for some family meals, from big breakfasts of pancakes, bacon, and eggs to dinners cooked outside on the grill. Or maybe as a special treat, Mom and Dad can take a break from cooking and go out to eat for a change. Another favorite is family movie night - finding a movie everyone can enjoy and popping up a batch of buttery popcorn. It doesn’t matter so much what we do for family fun, as long as we focus on turning off the cell phones and spending some great time together.
