He Cooks

Unlike Saturday, Sunday morning broke bright and sunny. Bonelli beckoned me to come play. I hadn't been home on a Sunday morning in a couple of weeks so I opted for making breakfast and a leisurely morning before church instead. Mr Culinary Student came home for Christmas break early in the afternoon and we all went to pick out our Christmas tree. I pulled the lights and ornaments out of storage, draped some lights on the tree and headed off to Bonelli before the sun faded away. I did my usual 5 mile loop, counter clockwise in 48:18. While I was gone Lisa put the myriad of balls and ornaments on the tree. My snail medal from Saturday's Jingle Bob was front and center. The ornament we picked up in Seattle this summer was also prominently displayed.

Tyler told us about his final cooking assignment that brought his grade into the A range. We convinced him that he needed to cook it for us. So off to the store he went with Mom and returned with onions, carrots, celery and two whole chickens. He cut up the chickens and made chicken stock with the veggies. He started with about 2 gallons of water and over the next 24 hours that was reduced to 2 cups that went into a rice pilaf and another very concentrated cup that served as the glaze. Monday night we enjoyed pan roasted "airline" chicken breasts with rice pilaf. Tyler spent a better part of the afternoon preparing this. I think he dirtied almost every sauce pan we had in the process. He even got out the white plates and used his presentation skills to plate the food. He mounded the pilaf just so on the center of the plate and used a towel to clean away any stray bits, then the chicken breast was placed atop the rice. It looked good and tasted good. This was his first official meal for us. I think he got a sense of satisfaction out of doing this and we certainly appreciated the effort he put into it. I'm really glad that he seems to be enjoying his schooling.

The remainder of the week so far has been spent nibbling away at bake goods that were meant to last a week and are basically already gone at this point. I certainly picked the wrong time of the year to cut back on the running. Come January 1 and Eugene is 17 weeks away, so it will be time to get down to business. Hopefully at that point I will be able to lift my sugar laden hind quarters out of the chair.