Tuesday at the Table

Food was always a big deal in our home as we were raising our children. Hubby once said that the hardest part of having kids was having to share licking the beaters! Now with the 20-somethings off on their own, I can't help but reflect . . .

As a wedding present, we got the neatest set of glass nesting bowls. Though for a while, we couldn't decide what in the world the smallest one could possibly be useful for. One day, as I was baking cookies, I filled the little bowl with chocolate chips and took it to hubby. We still do that - just enough for a sweet little "thinking of you" snack.

And there was the milk bottle.

When the kids came to the breakfast table each school morning, I'd have everything they needed to help themselves already on the table. Somewhere along the line, I decided not to put the gallon of milk out - maybe just because of the heft of it, I'm not really sure. I bought this milk bottle and it held just enough for the kids' breakfast. We have fond memories of the St. Patrick's day that I colored the milk green. Imagine their shock as they poured it out onto their cereal. Funniest thing - they fell for it again the next year!

And of course there were the sack lunches. I confess to dreading the making of them! In a desperate effort to make it fun, I started cutting sandwiches with cookie cutters or making turkey roll-ups with tortillas - anything interesting but tasty. I'd try and have home-baked treats to pack, and when supplies were critically low, I was known to fill a spoon with peanut butter and wrap it in saran. And then there were the notes. On important or stressful days, or "just because" I'd pop a note in there for kids or hubby to find at lunchtime. Boy, I miss those days!

That part about home-baked treats . . . well it kind of snowballed on me! I think it all started when daughter dear was concerned that one of her friends came to school without breakfast and asked if I could bake muffins and send an extra for her friend. Well, somehow word traveled, and before I knew it, every Wednesday I was baking and sending a dozen muffins, each in a baggie, so daughter dear could distribute them to her friends! (I was a baker, remember? This really wasn't a stretch! ha) Anyway, I'd try all sorts of muffin recipes and the girls, of course, each had their favorites. So at graduation, I made up a little recipe booklet and gave one to each girl, with the hope that they would make the muffins themselves and have muffin memories for a long time. I hope they still do.