Happiness is ...

I went grocery shopping late this afternoon before dinner. Besides all the things on my list, I came home with a rotisserie chicken, two baguettes, a box of crackers, candied orange and rosemary spread, and five kinds of cheese. It's possible that hunger affected my buying choices.

I walked in just before 7 pm, and everyone was hungry! The boys had just returned from their piano lessons. I pulled out two pounds of washed green beans, steamed them, tossed them into my biggest frying pan with some fresh garlic and olive oil, and finished them with soy sauce. We gobbled them up for dinner with the rotisserie chicken and some sliced cucumbers. EVERY SINGLE CHILD LOVED THE BEANS! "These green beans are so good!" "May I have more beans, please?" "Why do people serve the short fat beans instead of these?!" "I love the garlic on the beans." "These are the best beans I've eaten in 6 months!" 

As we finished dinner, I decided to inaugurate the cheese board that has been living in my cupboard for over a year. I set out aged white cheddar, goat cheese with herbs, camembert, and a cranberry cheese ball, plus the crackers, some grapes, and the baguettes. After Family Home Evening, they were just right for devouring.

I wish we had a picture of the cheese plate before we started eating and that it was on a beautiful clean table with no broken blinds behind it. However, I could not have been any happier in that lovely place than I was at my messy table. I take great pleasure in my children's food preferences, especially when they overlap with mine! Ethan's favorite was the herby goat cheese, Elizabeth preferred the sweet cheese ball, and Scott couldn't stop eating the cheddar. (Where was Emily?) I enjoyed them all, but candied orange spread on baguette and topped with camembert was extraordinary.

I have glimpsed the future and it's full of cheese!

Scott's first taste of camembert