I’m not that bad off.  I’ve been pretty tricky getting out of cooking, and my husband conspired with me by working away from home through much of our marriage.  Cooking for kids is different.

Today was different.  I shopped for groceries and then I cooked supper.  In determining what to cook, I had to keep in mind that my husband’s garden is supplying us abundantly with tomatoes and zucchini.  I’m watching my diet.

TA DAH!  Here comes a home-grown recipe for veggie tortellini.  Keep in mind that I’m not a vegetarian.  I just like to add lots of vegetables to my meals.

Veggie Tortellini

Instructions

• 1/2 large onion, chopped

• 1 stalk celery, trimmed and chopped small

• The fat end from a fat zucchini, seeded, cut thin and chopped

Heat a little oil in the bottom of the skillet and gently saute these vegetables until the zucchini has disappeared and the onions are transparent.

Add

• 6 fat ripe tomatoes from the garden, chopped in big chunks

• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic (from a jar in my refrigerator)

• 1 to 1 1/2 cups low-fat chicken broth

While that simmers itself into perfection, cook

• about 10 ounces pesto tortellini in about

• 1 1/2 quarts of salted water.  Cook until tender.

Simmer veggie sauce while the tortellini cooks.  When tortellini is done, drain it and add it to the sauce.  Allow the tortellini to sit in the warm sauce about 10 minutes.

Check sauce to be sure it’s seasoned to your taste.  Adjust if necessary (I didn’t) and serve.

Should serve 4 adults.

Believe it or not, I served this with quartered, boiled zucchini and turkey breast patties.

Eat up!

Marilynne

• Fresh raspberries hidden in the milk of my Red Berries cereal (never sugar)
• Veggies in abundance from the garden
• Oranges found on our tree in July (they’re a winter fruit)
• Little yummy somethings  made on the spot

OK, I’ll get to it.  Roy bought a pound of smoked salmon a few days ago.  He bought a pound because it was less per pound than 1/2 pound of smoked salmon.  Now he’s beginning to understand why 1/2 pound even might have been too much.  We have

• Made little bits of goodies by stacking sliced radishes, smoked salmon, and sour cream with a top hat of fresh dill to share with our square dance friends.
• Created a smoked salmon salad
• Ate crackers and cheese with smoked salmon – twice
• Today, created little bites of something yummy using varying combinations of fresh tomato, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, cucumber, dijon mustard, wheat thins, and those pretzel/cracker combos I like so much.

You may get the idea that we’re almost out of salmon, but we’re not.  We are almost out of wanting to eat smoked salmon.  It is so good.  It was so expensive.  But the truth is, we’re tired of it – and we don’t know what to do with the rest.

Marilynne

You can share my fun by trying some of the recipes below.

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/grilled-salmon-i/Detail.aspx

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/good-eats/grilled-salmon-steaks-recipe/index.html

http://www.salmonrecipes.us/salmon-loaf.html

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1817,148188-233201,00.html

http://www.grouprecipes.com/5718/salmon-patties.html

Our children, however, are destined to break away from us and go out into the world.  There’s not a lot we can do about that besides help them be ready for it.  Picture the toddler stubbornly trying to pull a shirt over her head.  You can see she doesn’t have the skill, but she wants to do it.  She is intent on doing it.  So you help a little here and there and soon your child can do it herself.

We send our children to school and that’s hard too.  How could the school environment possibly be a safe as home and mother?  The answer is: it isn’t and our child needs to learn how to cope with it.  We can help, but our children need that bit of independence.

Sometimes the mother just can’t let go and thereby we have coined the term “helicopter mother.”  That’s the mother who is convinced her child cannot live in the world without her.  Helicoptering over a baby might even be necessary.  When a child begins to walk, we sometimes shelter them in our arms, ready to catch them if they fall.  However, most babies can fall quite comfortably, with that soft diaper cushion to land on.  We need only to protect them from falls that might seriously injure them.

Helicoptering in Jr. High and High School is an embarrassment to the child and hinders their learning.  These are the years in which a child begins the passage into adulthood.  These are the years when they can make huge mistakes and the mother needs to stand back and stand ready to help them through it.  Sometimes to intervene, but never to helicopter.   These years are similar to the terrible two’s with the exception that changes can be life shattering, or life lifting.  The mother no longer holds her arms out around her child, but is ready to discipline, give advice, help the child through this risky phase of life.

We need to be ready to pick them up when they fall and try to hold them back from disastrous decisions.  These are scary years for the mother, but eventually the child breaks free and goes into adulthood, more or less independent of her mother.

Are you wondering where I’m going with this?  My daughters, now in their forties, still worry about telling me things.  I don’t think I was (or am) a helicopter Mom.  I always knew my job was to bring my children up to be happy, fully functional adults.  I try to be a hands-off Mom, ready to advise when asked, and trying not to critique their decisions.

I find myself telling them “You have the right to chart your own life.”  The tough part is unspoken “whether I like your choices or not.”  Part of me loves being Mom, and part of me still wonders where being Mom ends – maybe never.

Marilynne

Thanks to PhotoBucket for the pictures of toddlers.