I have spent the weekend with our son and his wife and have picked up some wonderful cooking ideas in a short time.  Just the fact that they are so willing to pitch in with meals at the cottage-makes my heart sing. 

The first taste treat was their spaghetti with Italian sausage.  I usually blanch the sausages and then let then soak up the pasta sauce.  They grill theirs until crunchy on the barbeque and add them to the sauce at the last minute-yum.

They shared a simple and yet fabulous recipe for pork.  My husband modified it for the barbeque instead of a sauté pan and it went like this: sear pork chops or pork tenderloin that has been liberally covered with salt and pepper on high heat.  Then move to a pan containing 1 part ice tea and one part balsamic vinegar.  Let the sauce reduce as pork continues cooking.  Serve at the doneness point of your liking (we like ours medium rare to medium well-but definitely not well done).  This proved to be a really interesting mixture of tastes-sweet and pungent and the sauce was also lovely on the wild rice pilaf that we also served.

Sister #2 is the expert omelet maker at the cottage but in her absence our son was willing to take a stab at it.  We also have a new electric griddle which put him at an extreme disadvantage.  The first batch was delicious but not thin and rolled like his Aunt’s.  The second batch though was pretty near perfection. 

Last night I tried two new tastes: carrot sticks dipped into red pepper humus at happy hour and another specialty while watching a movie.  They sprinkle nutritional yeast on buttered popcorn!  It was kind of a cross between toasted bread crumbs and a mild parmesan cheese and you feel healthy just eating it.

Of the many talents that our children possess, their enthusiasm for preparing food for loved ones and their gifts of hospitality are the ones that bless me the most.

She has our hearts

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