NUMMY!

(My pot of ragu cooking away)

I know you aren't really supposed to talk baby-talk to kids, but I love the way Amelia says yummy when she likes something she eats... "nummmmy, mommay!" It's better than any 4-star review I ever had as a restaurant Chef! :)

Today we had a spicy grilled cheese sandwich with apples at lunch that won a Nummy award from my peanut gallery. I made it with 12 grain bread, 2 slices american cheese and 1 slice jalapeno cheese, with very thin slices of peeled apple evenly across the sandwich (in between the cheeses). Then cook as you would a normal grilled cheese sandwich! They were delicious and a bit spicy. I was surprized she liked them as much as she did. Then of course, this is the baby who would only eat her eggs with daddy's hot sauce on them when she first started eating eggs!

I've been a cooking fool these past few days. I made crockpot spareribs and sauerkraut, served them with garlic pepper roasted red potatoes (with kosher salt); pork curry with coconut milk, onion and garlic cloves and some fresh red chard chopped into it (I'll serve that over rice); and I'll be making pork chops with mushroom sauce later today. My crockpot has been getting a work out. Pork was half price at the commissary, can you tell? I'm going to freeze a bunch of it in individual portions so Mia and I can eat well when I don't feel like cooking.

I could use some chocolate chip cookies, though. Last time my friend Connie visited me, we made a new recipe I found - banana chocolate chip cookies. NUMMY!!