Little Chef

21+ years ago, I spent 3 weeks in the hospital before my 1st son was born. It was a small hospital on a small Air Force base in Arizona. A lot of the time I was the only patient in the OB ward. Needless to say I got to know the nurses fairly well.

As you can imagine the hospital food was pretty bland. One night, one of the nurses brought dinner in for herself and the other staff. She was kind enough to sneak me some. Homemade Cashew Chicken...it was wonderful! A little spicy and tons of flavor. The next night, at my request, she brought me the recipe.

I have been making this recipe for 21 years now. I don't make it often because it requires a lot of prep time chopping chicken and vegetables but I've been in a bit of a cooking rut lately so out came the butcher knife.

For the last year or so, I have had a little sidekick in the kitchen. My youngest, Kara, is pretty much attached to me at the hip. She especially loves the kitchen and is always asking me if I will teach her how to make whatever I happen to making at the time when she gets older. I would love just about nothing more than to do just that.

Anyway, she has a little stool that she always pulls up next to me to watch or try to involve herself in whatever I'm doing. Today as I peeled the carrots over the trash can, she began to pick the peelings out of the trash. She asked for a plate and began to prepare her own dinner. Her dinner consisted of carrot peelings, green onion stalks, and the discarded ends of the celery.

She was so very proud of herself when her dinner was complete. I told her that it was too bad that we didn't have rabbits because they would love a dinner like that. She then decided that we should take the plate outside and leave it hoping that some little bunnies would happen along. We convinced her that her stuffed animals would enjoy it more.

Her future husband will be very blessed! I hope he likes rabbit food. :)