A good day

Yesterday I had an appointment that my partner needed to come too as well. It was a short appointment, and for reasons that are not important at the moment.  What was important about it was that it was at a silly time which meant my partner needed to take the WHOLE DAY off work.  When you are home with two kids this kind of event is worth writing about!

The morning began with the usual craziness.  Baby waking, needing a feed to be dressed, etc.  Breakfast needed to be made for the four year old (she is quite particular!) and we needed to shower and dress.  This job is SO much easier with us both home.  It was a playgroup day, so a friend dropped her daughter in at around 9 for me to take her to playgroup with my little one.  It is a good arrangement as she drops mine home at the end.  I piled all the kids into the Cargobike and took off for playgroup.  The best bit of this was once the four year old was happily ensconced at play I headed off to meet my partner for a coffee...well, tea.  The quiet!  Oh, the blessed quiet!  Yes, we still had our 9 month old son with us, but he can’t speak yet, and while he burbles away, he doesn’t feel the need to make constant noise, as our daughter does.  We sat at a café and talked to each other.  Grown ups.  Lovely.

Off we went to our appointment, then home again.

There was some work done in the afternoon before our daughter was dropped off, but with both of us home it was completed quickly which meant that when she did get home we had TIME to do things together as a family.  Novel idea really.

And what should be on the agenda for the afternoon?  Cooking of course!  We have a modest garden which used to be a well-tended vegetable garden.  Since the arrival of the children the tending has kind of fallen by the wayside.  We would lovingly plant the vegetables, but would not have the time to tie them up, or fertilise them.  So, our vegetable garden has become an herb wonderland.  There are still a few low maintenance vegies in there, but mostly delicious herbs which require little more than the sun, rain and the occasional trim.  Our neighbours often pop in to grab a handful of mint, or parsley, or comment on the different foliage which pokes through the fence.

Pesto was on the menu for dinner and that our daughter was going to make it!

We have a variety of presto recipes up our sleeves (rocket and basil is a good one - especially served with sweet potato gnocchi, as is parsley and almond) and just yesterday my friend at 'My Wholefood Romance" wrote about Kale pesto! Today we decided to make straight up traditional basil pesto, loosely following Stephanie Alexander’s recipe.   

Stephanie's cookbook, ‘The CooksCompanion’, is a bible in our home.  We have the first edition and I am coveting the latest version which I hear has around 100 new pages of foodie goodness.  Her recipes are not all fool proof.  Sometimes we have been really disappointed with the result, especially when something has taken a whole day to prepare.  This book does however, have a terrific basics section.  How to make pastry, how to make pasta, how to make…you name it!  It is always the first point of reference before we cook something or come across an unusual ingredient. Even if we don’t always follow the recipe, we often use it as a starting point.

Anyway, Stephanie’s recipe is simple:

1 tightly packed cup of basil leaves

½ cup olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons grated   Parmesan cheese

In a food processor, whizz up the basil, garlic, salt and garlic (I usually use about 2/3 of a clove rather than two whole cloves, I find that much raw garlic  bit overpowering and I want to taste my own fresh basil rather than have my head blown off!).  You could do this in a mortar and pestle if you like, or could just chop and chop and chop!

Add the olive oil bit by bit, you may not need it all.

Once you have the consistency that you like stir in the Parmesan to taste.  (We always add more than suggested, yum!).

We had a particularly good dried pasta from the Mediterranean Wholesaler, but if you have time homemade it best.  (I usually make it with 1 egg for every 100grams of flour, and olive oil on my hands for kneading).

After cooking the pasta as the packet suggested we stirred some of the cooking water with the pesto (this stops the cheese clumping when you mix it with hot pasta) and stirred it through, topping it off with smoked salmon and Murray salt flakes.  DELICIOUS!

Our daughter loved it.  Just by spending the time with us doing something meaningful was an instant mood improver.  I work from home, so often things are rushed and quality time with my daughter is sometimes cut short.  This, sadly, results in her being less ‘chipper’ and more prone to tantrums or tears.  Not surprising really, that hanging out with your kids and engaging with them means they are happier.  Anyway, she picked the basil leaves, washed and spun them (salad spinners are magic to little kids), measured the olive oil, was in charge of the food processor and stirred in the cheese.  She chopped up the salmon and helped plate up.  Then she ate her dinner, with no complaints!  

Next time we are going to try coriander and peanut pesto...apparently great with noodles and as a marinade.  Our daughter is loving tending her peanut bush at the moment, and in about 10 weeks we should have a decent crop to experiment with.

Cooking with kids takes time and patience, but is such a terrific way to help children understand where food comes from and get them interested in trying different things.  It is also a terrific way to get a job done while spending time with your children…as well as teaching them a few things along the way.