What's for dinner?

When Eric and I got married, I barely knew anything about cooking. Baking I loved and was good at, but cooking meals? Not so much. I'd had many a bowls of cereal for dinner in my college days. And since I got married during my college days, I didn't really think that would change. Except that my sweet hubby didn't think Cheerios was a good main course.

In the beginning (of the marriage, not of time), it actually didn't matter too terribly much. We didn't have a lot of money for food anyway, and you can only heat up ramen noodles so many different ways. When we did have "real" food to cook, Eric took over. Not only did he learn a lot from his mom, who is an awesome cook, he also loved playing around in the kitchen (he also loves grocery shopping and is the main shopper in our household...aren't I lucky?). So most all of our meals were Eric-made and delicious. And we were happy.

Then we "grew up" (meaning, we graduated from college), Eric got a real job, and I had a real baby and stayed home with him, and so somehow the meal duties fell to me. Then our meals went from Eric-made and delicious to Elisa-made and...interesting. You know, like the time I tried to make shrimp pasta, only to realize during dinner that before you add the shrimp, you are supposed to take the tails off. Eric didn't bat an eye as he crunched his way through the meal. In fact, he even complimented my valiant attempt without mentioning my faux pas. Is that love or what?!

Let's fast forward to many years later.

Our ways of cooking as well as of eating in general have changed drastically. That's what happens when you have a hubby who works in the food industry, I suppose. Also, once our first born started eating solid foods, I did a lot of research and changed the way the entire family ate. As for my cooking skills, I'm happy to say that has changed drastically, too. I'm pretty sure Eric would say he's happy about that as well. I'm no Julia Child, and with three little ones to care for, we certainly have our grilled-cheese-for-dinner nights and the Honey-please-pick-up-a-pizza nights, but we have come a long way.

So what's for dinner around here now?

Lately we've been eating a lot of peaches. We are south enough that we can get peaches from a peach orchard down the road. Yum! A great and colorful compliment to Continental Beef and brown rice. The beets are from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.
I had to use a bunch of egg whites for baking and hated tossing a perfectly good egg yolk. The solution? Cooked up the yolk and have a "sun" sandwich! My kids thought that was hilarious
We've been on a salmon kick this summer as the local grocery store had Alaskan wild-caught sockeye salmon for really cheap. Eric grills this. I am not a fan of fish, but I love grilled salmon. The beans are from our CSA. The milk comes with our CSA subscription and is from a local creamery. It's pasteurized, but at lower temperatures as to preserve nutrients, and it's not homogenized. It's a treat, and the half gallon we get doesn't last long around here. "Real" milk doesn't taste exactly like store bought milk; it's much better.
These are Greek Beef Bites. Some of the lettuce is from our own plant and some from the CSA. We wrap it up in a tortilla with tomatoes and a yogurt-cucumber sauce for a gyro-like taste.
We make pizza a lot. I got a great crust recipe from my friend Andrea. I use 100% whole wheat flour, and it works well. We've had a lot of basil in our CSA box lately, so besides eating and freezing pesto, we made a few tomato and basil pizzas. The chocolate is my dessert treat.
Now, you may be wondering how our kids do with this. The answer? They eat it up! Whenever they whine "But I don't like it!" (usually said before they've even tried it), we laugh and tell them, "We didn't say you have to like it. We just said you just have to eat it!" And most often they end up loving it. One of their favorite summer meals is corn-on-the-cob and tomato, sunflower sprouts, and avocado sandwiches washed down with real milk.
Bon appetit!