This past week was a short one coming off of Memorial Day weekend, which for us was spent babysitting my new niece for a night and spending the others with my little family, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece, and my mama. We started the weekend off with Grilled Mini Meat Loaves, Roasted Corn, and Tomato Pie...I had to make some Southern staples as a proper welcome to the South for my sis and blaw who live in NYC. The weekend was gorgeous, and I so enjoyed getting my baby fix while my sis and her hubby had a fun night away.
When they arrived back in Winston, my awesome sis and blaw brought back fresh fruit and herbs from the Farmer's Market in Raleigh which is evidently HUGE! The mint, lemon thyme, and basil along with my fresh fruits and veggies that arrived at my doorstep on Tuesday from Salem Delights gave me some fun inspiration for meals last week. So as not to bore you with too many details, I will just lay them out for you:
Roasted Chicken with Thyme & Lemon, Blueberry Tart Pie, Cucumber & Tomato Salad
Kappa Muffins, Lemon, Ginger, Cucumber & Mint Water aka Flat Tummy Water, & Avocado Corn Salsa
It was such a fun week trying new recipes with the freshest ingredients available to me.
My favorite day of the week, though, was Sunday. I decided to do a true Sunday dinner for my family: Chicken & Gravy, Salad, Rolls, & Corn. We got home from church a little after 11:00am, my husband got the kids changed and kept them entertained outside, and I hit the kitchen until dinner was served at 2:00pm.It was AWESOME! The kids were so patient, and it was really, really nice to have that family time together around the dinner table enjoying food that was channeling my grandmother, Taddy.
I used to love going to my Taddy's farm in Belton, SC growing up, and I used this Sunday dinner as a time to tell my boys all about my adventures with my brother and sister and all of our cousins. I told them about climbing magnolia trees, about jumping out of the top of the barn onto the hay bales, about fishing in the pond, about riding trees, about one of my cousins totally trusting her daddy enough to jump off of the zipline platform into his arms when he jokingly told her to, about visiting the graveyard on the property, about driving my uncle's truck in the cow pasture, about being scared of the bull, about how my uncles cut a racetrack in the field so that my cousins and I could race our new go-cart that my uncle and grandmother gave to us one Christmas, about me driving said go-cart into the pond at the end of a 180 degree peel out that I thought I'd attempt, about Sunday dinners, about going up in the front end loader and decorating the magnolia trees with Christmas lights, about shooting fireworks, about picking blackberries, about kneading dough for rolls with Taddy. As you can tell, I have the greatest memories of our time on the farm, and it was so fun to reminisce while my children sat and ate their dinner.
I find that we have become so busy with activities, getting here, there and yonder, that I often miss the joy of just spending time together with my family...away from electronics, away from the hustle and bustle, away from social obligations, sports, etc. I am looking forward to this summer in a way that I really never have before. I don't think I've ever been this excited for my children to get out of school. I am ready to start the Lawson Family Summer Adventure complete with trips to the beach, backyard barbeques, cooking with my kids, getting dirty in the yard, playing in the sprinklers, reading under trees, pick up baseball games, watching the sun go down, picnics, and just enjoying my kids being kids. At the end of it all, I know I will be craving getting back into a routine and having some dedicated time to myself, but, for now, I say, BRING ON THE SUMMER!
I'm not sure how often I'll be writing this summer...I'm going to just see where the Spirit leads me...it may be daily, it may be weekly, it may be a sporadic post here and there. In the meantime, enjoy some yummy summer recipes and a great summer with family and friends.
Happy Cooking!
