Phew!

After dinner last night, I cooked and prepped then took a break to do homework with the kids, give them a bath and read a few bedtime stories. Once they were tucked in, I went right back to cooking and prepping. My efforts produced 4+ pounds of sweet Italian sausage containing free range pork ground fresh, fennel, green garlic, herbs and other vegetables plucked directly from my garden. I stuffed the links fat so that they were positively bursting from their casings. I like my sausage to have some girth. I'll freeze most of the links using my food saver and the rest will be sliced in to coins, fried golden brown and sandwiched in between the delicate sheets of spinach pasta which I will roll out tonight for the lasagna. The tiramisu I made last is setting up nicely. I made a full 9"x13" sheet pan of it. It's rich stuff so that quantity will go a long way.

Why, you ask have I gone to all this trouble? The answer is simple, this type of effort is not anything unusual for me and I certainly do not consider it to be a bother. I love to cook for friends and family. Furthermore, growing and then cooking much of what we eat gives the boys respect for the fact that food is grown in the dirt, harvested fresh brought in to the kitchen and used to nourish their bodies. It is an idea that has sadly been lost on many in our quick gratification culture. Most kids will point to the local supermarket when asked where their food comes from.

The fruits of my garden are the inspiration for many of my culinary creations. Growing delicious, wholesome, organic ingredients and incorporating them in to my cooking is an ultimate form of self expression for me. The spinach to make the lasagna pasta sheets will come from my cool weather vegetable bed which currently contains spinach, swiss chard, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, garlic, onions and cauliflower. My relationship with the food I grow in my garden is made more intimate by the fact that I created the compost which nourishes the soil. From beginning to end I have helped craft the results.