Martha: The Next Generation

Anyone who knows my two oldest daughters, Brooke and Raegan, know that they are emerging gourmet chefs.  Actually, I'm not sure I should use the word emerging.  Basically, they are gourmet chefs.  In my opinion, they have arrived.

These two girls are, for lack of a better word, obsessed with cooking.  Obsessed, I say!  When each has a birthday or it's Christmas or there is any opportunity for them to receive a gift, ALL they ask for are cookbooks.  When not in the kitchen cooking, they spend their free time pouring over cooking blogs and driving around town shopping for rare and exotic ingredients.  Their dream is to go to culinary school in New York City (and once they each come up with the $45,000 per semester tuition PLUS enough for NYC lodging , I'll gladly let them go).

I curse myself for not taking a picture of the cookbooks that Brooke checked out from the library a couple of weeks ago.  It seemed like there were hundreds of them.  Maybe thousands!  There were literally stacks and stacks and STACKS of cookbooks on our family room floor for two weeks. Nightly, she sat with her collection, pouring over each and every glorious page.

These girls fight over who "gets" to cook dinner.  They fight over who "gets" to make the dessert (and trust me, there is never a lack of desserts around this house!).  

(And, just for the record, I don't fight with them.  I am perfectly fine to sit back and have someone else cook our dinner.)

(Yip, this set-up pretty much works for me.)

Brooke and Raegan are not your average cooks and they do not cook average food.   They make things called Fesenjan (Chicken and Beets in Pomegranate Walnut Sauce), Harissa Baked Purple Hedgehog Potatoes with a Yogurt Mint Dipping Sauce, and Coconut Red Lentil and Chickpea Soup topped with Toasted Slivered Almonds, Feta Cheese and finished with a light drizzle of Olive Oil.

These are the kind of meals we eat at our house.

However, as delicious as these meals may be for us adults, I can say they usually do not sit very well with the little boys; Matthew (10) and Adam (6).  These boys feel greatly deprived of hamburgers, tacos, and spaghetti.  You know, BOY food!  Of which Brooke and Raegan never make!  

Until last night.  Brooke was feeling rather kind and generous towards her brothers and therefore decided it was "time to cater to the boys."  So, she made Matthew's favorite dish of all time: Lasagne.  

Lasagne with MEAT and OOEY-GOOEY CHEESE* and NOODLES!  

It was nothing short of little boy heaven at our house last night!

We quickly consumed half of the pan, being careful to save the other half for the boys' dinner tonight. Oh boy!  Were they ever looking forward to dinner tonight!

We set the pan, covered with aluminum foil, out on our back patio picnic table.  It was certainly cold enough to keep it there over night, and we do this all the time with leftovers.  When it's this cold outside, it's like "the world is our refrigerator!"

But this time it wasn't meant to be.  You see, apparently we have raccoons in our neighborhood who like to eat all of our neighbor's chickens.  And I guess now that they've eaten all the neighbor's chickens they have now turned to eating LASAGNE!

THIS is what was left of our half-pan of lasagne.
 (And how thoughtful of said raccoon to not eat ALL of it.  What a nice raccoon to
leave us a few, dry, licked-clean noodles.)

THIS is the aluminum foil which was found several feet away, cruelly sliced by the raccoon's paw and carelessly thrown to the side of the sandbox.  Just look at that
perfectly guilty paw print!

I guess the world is no longer our refrigerator.  

And I guess the boys will be eating Farrow with Red Cabbage and Lemon-Scented Quinoa for dinner tonight.

*Addendum: My aforementioned daughter has informed me that the "Ooey-gooey cheese" was actually "Ooey-gooey TOFU mixed with a bit of cheese.  Such sneaky, sneaky girls.