Rekindled duties (could become passions)

Our oven was fixed yesterday. It hasn't worked since the beginning of June. It seemed like a good idea to leave it off for the summer so as to avoid yet more heat. We grilled a bunch and didn't really miss it all that much. Well, I didn't. On Tues. night, Gillen mixed up the "smart cookie" recipe from the Moosewood kids' cookbook, Honest Pretzels and brought it over to our 90 year old neighbor's to bake them. This was the second time he's taken baking matters in his own hands and borrowed Miss Grace's oven. She loved having him there. They talked for an hour. He said that she described what our small town used to look like and the games she used to play - in the cotton that grew in our yard! I'm so glad that Miss Grace is there. They have known each other since Gillen was two. He said that he still wants to go bake there sometimes, even with our oven working.

Gillen's cooking inspired Jesse to want to cook so he broke in our newly fixed oven with "spaghetti pie" (another Honest Pretzel recipe) for dinner - very yummy! Especially with his addition of 3/4 of a can of organic green olives. Truly. They make everything better, not just dirty martinis.

So I feel a bit of cooking enthusiasm beginning to stir, somewhere deep within. I'm going to grind the spelt and mix up the Weston Price cereal recipe and soak it overnight and cook it up for the boys. It's so nice when their enthusiasm inspires me, so that I in turn can share with them, or mine inspires them, and so on...

My mother-in-law, Helen, is visiting her new grandson so isn't here making flower bouquets and washing chicken eggs (two of her businesses) so I'll be getting my hands back in the flowers tomorrow. I know that she'd be fine with me helping with the bouquets when she is here as well but lately, I need that extra push of necessity, just like with the kids' cooking. I am looking forward to the flowers. So many other passions took over that endeavor (remember how lame red heads can be about heat) but it is a good one to revisit.