I'm Turning Into my Mother.

Yup, it's true.
I am.
I wonder if these two will also turn into their mother?

 My Mom has always loved to cook.
I grew up having delicious home cooked meals nearly seven days a week. 
I never took much interest in cooking until I had my own family.
When I moved out of the house with my best friend at 19, I thought knowing how to toast a bagel would be suffient kitchen skills.
When I got married my mom desperately wanted to teach me several of her staple meals that she had always made (that I am sure her mother taught her).
I did try, but to be honest I was more interested in building my wardrobe than I was in building my recipe rolodex.

my first homemade french bread loaf.

(o.m.g. I could have eaten the whole thing myself)

When I registered for my wedding, I had absolutely no idea what kind of dishes or china I wanted.  I was 21 years old.  I knew nothing about that stuff. 

My Mom helped me select a pretty pfaltzgraff pattern of dishes, but really what I wanted to do, was take that registry gun two departments over to the handbags and juniors department and scan anything and everything that caught my eye.

If only I could register again.

If my now 30 year old self could speak to my 21 year old self standing there in the home department of JCPenney, I would tell her this:

One day Gennifer you are going to love cooking and providing healthy meals for your family just as much as your mother has enjoyed providing them for you.

One day you might actually save up your money to buy dishes and kitchen gadgets just as you have seen your mom do so many times.

One day you might make bread in a bread maker, just like your mom.

One day you just might find yourself standing in your own kitchen, with your young daughters sitting on their knees at the island barstools trying to watch you prepare dinner, and asking you questions about the new dishes you just bought at Kohl's, 

 and you will think to yourself, I have turned into my mother.
And you will smile to yourself, because you know that turning into your mother is not a bad thing at all. 

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And now for some random weekend stuff:

I worked all day Saturday and Mr. H took the girls to one of Hannah's friends birthday parties.

 It was at Pump It Up.  Which is basically different bounce house type stuff in different rooms, and the last room is cake and ice cream and presents.  It's really kind of genius for kids parties.  Except for the germs.  You know I'm such a germaphobe.  They didn't mind the germs one bit though.  Claire kept up with those 5 year olds no problem.

Sunday we were most productive.
Mr. Hass finished painting the playroom.  It is aqua and brown now.  (pictures soon.  maybe. if i ever get it organized in there again.)
He also did a massive clean out of his man cave the garage.
I cleaned.
Went to Kohl's and bought my fun new turquoise fiesta ware.
Went to B&N with a gift card and bought these two books...

 I can't wait to make some of Jamie's recipes.  I'm a big fan of his.
I also can. not. wait. to dive into Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
It is Barbara Kingsolver's first nonfiction about her family's pledge to eat locally for an entire year.  It is part memoir and part journalistic investigation.  I'm so excited to read it.

 I made prosciutto and pineapple pizzas last night.
With a beautiful green salad from the farmers market.

I am officially on twitter now.
Not because I wanted to tweet (although I might),
but because a client was telling me how she follows people like Jamie Oliver and Michael Pollan.
Jamie shares a lot of recipes it seems, and Michael Pollan mentions lots of good food info and articles he has written. 
I'm also following Ellen.
And Oprah.
You know, the important people.
My twitter name is GennDoesHair in case you want to follow me.
;)

Speaking of Michael Pollan, in case anyone is interested I wanted to share this really great FAQ article in the New York Times that he recently wrote. 

From that article I wrote down the dirty dozen and clean fifteen food lists.  The dirty dozen are the twelve plants that have the highest amount of pesticides when grown industrially and these are the most important foods we should buy organic.  The clean fifteen, obviously, are the foods grown with the least amount of pesticides and it's ok to not buy these organic.

I've got this in my crockpot today...

I'm making cinnamon apple butter.

8 gala apples

1 T cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

juice of one lemon

and about 4 cups of organic apple juice made with no sugar

My house smells amazing.

Hope you are having a good Monday.

Claire is sleeping (and has a cold),

Mr. H and Hannah went to watch the Globetrotters on a date today,

and I have a sore throat (caught the kids cold) and am off to rest my weary head.