It's good to be "home"

It's been over a week since I did much of anything in the kitchen. I was sick, a cold that turned into a flu, that aggravated my asthma, which aggravated the flu more, endless cycle of coughing and not getting better. A few days with an inhaler, a few nights of sleep, and I'm still coughing, but not as much and not as badly. Best of all, I am ready to both cook, and eat again.

I've so missed being able to cook.

Actually, when I was really sick, the only thing I really wanted was sleep, but if I had been getting that, I probably would have missed cooking too. Or at least eating.

So last night I cooked dinner for my family. Nothing too fancy; pork chops and carrots in a taryaki sauce, steamed yellow beans, and some steamed spaghetti squash for me. No pictures, no recipe, just what was thrown together. It was good to be back in the kitchen.

This morning the children and I had a breakfast date with old friends from out of town, but I had made a commitment before I came down sick, to make a baked good as part of the fundraising efforts for my son's taekwon-do school, who was hosting a large tournament today and wanted to have items for sale in the cafeteria. I was originally going to make chocolate chip cookies but when I woke up this morning, way too early, I didn't want to make cookies. I wanted to make brownies.

I am happy to say I managed to meet my original commitment and donate a batch of brownies to the fundraising efforts. I only hope they all sold out!

Having made a batch of brownies though, I promptly gave them all away, much to the dismay of my children (bags of Halloween candy notwithstanding, they are so hard done by!) So I made a second batch, with the help of my youngest son. This time I made them a little more kid friendly, putting them into individual mini-muffin tins and adding some Smarties to the bottoms. Both these things allowed my son to have a job: put the paper liners in the cups, and put a Smartie, his choice of color, on top of each of the brownies.

The brownies are extra chocolatey, and the house was filled with the scent of them baking (despite the big slow cooker filled with spaghetti and meatballs, made between the two batches of brownies.)

These little morsels of chocolate should be just about perfect for me. Unused to eating too much, or things that are too rich or decadent after a week of soup and orange juice, bite size brownies provide perfect portion control. And the Smartie on top of the brownies with the Smarties on the bottom reminds me that those brownies (36 of 48 of them) are meant for the children.

I don't miss doing dishes, or cleaning up the counter, but I'm happy to be back in my kitchen.