"I just wanted to spice our lives up a little bit with some cedar planks"

Last year a friend of my mom's decided that it was time for my sister to learn some domestic stuff. The ultimate goal was to get her to clean toilets, but in the process my sister Mara was supposed to also help cooks meals. Mara took to the cooking part, the toilet part not so much. Fast forward a year and my mom is doing her weekly "what do you want to eat" question time. Pretty much my mom asks everyone what they want to eat and when no one answers she finds someone who she creates an obligation to come up with meals. This week it was my turn. "Well it's your last week at home, so what do you want?" Last week it was my turn too; at least I know the job will be shifted once I leave. Anyway Mara said get salmon because I have TONS of recipes for salmon as she trots down the stairs all ready to print one out for us to see.

The recipe was a cedar plank salmon with lime juice and Worcestershire sauce and all kinds of other stuff. My mom and I were quite skeptical asking her where she was planning on finding cedar planks. "Well you just leave that out. Haven't you ever experimented before?" It might have been the tone in which she said it, or maybe the very adult mature stance she took; but my mom and I just died laughing. If you don't have cedar planks, just leave that out.

In some ways Mara is very right. I get rather frustrated with people who buy every single ingredient in a recipe and drive themselves crazy spending way more money that should be spent on one meal just because the recipe calls for it, or not trying something new because they lack one ingredient. If a recipe calls for squeezing lemons over fish and limes are on sale that week, then try the limes. Who knows you might find something you really like in the process.

In the beginning of the summer Mrs. Obama's White House garden was causing quite a bit of buzz. I figured a garden was a garden, but after reading an article about this garden I am intrigued and would like to visit. Some of the seedlings used for the Obama garden were actually from Monticello. It turns out Thomas Jefferson was a big gardener. According to what I read he actually told the people who traveled that they should bring seeds back with them.

The Obama garden was a success. Supposedly the produce was used for dinners at the White House and some was even sent to local soup kitchens. My sister made dinner(thankfully not the cedar plankless salmon) tonight. I must say it was delicious. I'm not a big proponent of a woman's place being in a kitchen and cleaning a house, but I do think it's important that everyone learns how to cook. Who knows maybe one day my sister will have to cook a lot; I doubt she'll be following my steps into a kitchen, in fact I can assure you that I would persuade her and her perfectly gelled hair against such a course of career.

I hope you had a good first day of the week and last day of August and that it was possibly spiced up with a little bit of cedar planks.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily