Hard to believe but Grandpa outdid himself.

We had a very lazy Sunday morning. P only got out of bed to make coffee, and after several attempts to get up and be productive, I gave up the farce. We lounged, we read, then P decided to watch a weird movie involving plane crash survivors haunted by wolves. Not exactly a child friendly movie, so we set SS up in her room with our old bedroom TV and DVD player. By old, I mean really old, when we lived in the Lost Coast. SS watched one of the Star War movies and lounged her morning away as well. 

P had been looking for recipes to break in the last Dutch oven Grandpa sent and had settled on a stew.  It seems wrong to use such a pretty pot, but I don't think Grandpa would appreciate it if we use such a magnificent kitchen tool as adornment.

Before the above pot arrived we received a very unexpected surprise. I have coveted a particular kitchen tool for a very long time. The thing is that I do not bake, and my cooking skills are questionable. Then there's the space issue, and it just was not practical to own one. Whenever P asked me why I wanted one my lame answer was that it seemed like a grown up kitchen tool to have.  So we made a deal, when we buy a house it must have a large kitchen, with a large island to accommodate my toy, then P would buy me one. Imagine our surprise when we found two boxes waiting for us at home, and in one of them was...

This, the way Grandpa managed to outdo himself. I could not believe it, and wondered if he had any idea that I wanted one for so long. P told me "now you better start baking." Looks like P expected me to become a baking machine the  very next day, and was royally annoyed that he was not coming home from work to be spoiled with delicious baked treats. There's so much going on now with Christmas, and the fact that the constant pain has worn me out, that I decided that maybe waiting would be a good idea. Yesterday morning was as long as P was willing to wait, and took matters in his own hands. After we were done lazying around P stated that we were going to make a beef stew for dinner, and would also make chocolate chip cookies, allowing SS to do most of the work.  I do miss sharing my kitchen with SS, it's been a while. Although it was raining and cold, P braved going out to buy the ingredients needed.

We peeled, we diced, P dredged, browned, and actually had a good time, because he really enjoys cooking.

We could not use the Staub Dutch oven because it was not large enough. But thanks to Grandpa we had plenty of other options. Had this happened before Grandpa's generous gifts we would have been out of luck.

P did a great job, it was a very tasty stew, and I'm sure we will be making it many times over. Grandpa was right, it needed another onion, we will be doing that next time.

While the stew was in the oven SS got to break in the Kitchen Aide. Yeah, my dream kitchen tool and SS gets first crack at it.

We had been sending pictures to Grandpa about our cooking, and he requested that SS get a taste of the cookie dough.  There are raw eggs in there, we know, but P and I would not have reached adulthood if it was so dangerous. It's one of those childhood musts. There's also butter, a no no for SS now, but we have agreed to bend the rules on special occasions.

Not bad for a lazy Sunday, we had a hearty meal and more cookies than we know what to do with.  A few days ago SS told P that we had to leave chocolate chip cookies and cow milk for Santa. Cow milk, how cute, she would not risk offending Santa with rice milk. SS has surprised us with her acceptance of rice milk, quite the task for a child who could go through a gallon of whole milk in two days. If it turns out that she will have to avoid dairy products permanently, she can at least have a substitute.  The downside is that rice milk is 99% fat free, good for us, bad for SS. SS's main fat source is gone, and now we need to find other ways to get fat in her little body.