Beef stew, taco salad, pasta bake.

This weekend was all American cuisine. I go in waves - I'll cook all Chinese for a week and then I won't. It just usually depends on whether or not I've been to the Chinese grocery store lately. Even when I don't cook all Chinese, I am heavily influenced by the food of my people. I'll throw garlic in just about anything. Any vegetable can be sauteed with some garlic and salt. And sometimes soy sauce instead of salt adds a little extra flavor!

Saturday night, my company had a big party. We were recently sold to HP for $1.65 billion and it was a "celebration" party thrown by three of our founders. My parents were coming over to babysit Natalie and I wanted to make them some dinner so my mom wouldn't have to cook while holding the baby. It had to be something fast and vegetarian. I had some really good, fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Some penne pasta and some spinach. I tore the mozzarella into pieces, mixed it with an egg and parmesan cheese and added some bread crumbs to soak up any extra juices. I did this while cooking the pasta al dente. I mixed everything together, added the spinach and threw it into a Pyrex baking pan in the oven until it was warm and bubbly. It smelled great. My sister Vickie had a big forkful the second she saw it and declared it yummy!

Sunday lunch we made taco salads. We got four little avocados in our "bag". Alec made some guacamole. I browned some ground turk. We put it together with some chips, lettuce, sour cream and salsa and ate so fast. Natalie, never wanting to miss a minute with us on the weekends, only takes 30 minute naps. We are starting to learn how to cook and eat our meals within them. This should be just right for your radio cooking show Nancy!

Those avocados were so good - I ate one Brazilian style, just plain with sugar. My dad used to always eat his avocados like that when we were young. When we asked him why, he said that that's what they did when they lived in Brazil. I confirmed with our nanny, who is Brazilian, that that's how they eat it!

Beef stew: potatoes, carrots, zucchini and onions all from the bag. Some Niman Ranch beef. That'll be dinner Mon/Tues/Wed.

I should also mention that we often roast all the miscellaneous vegetables we get from the bag. Last week we roasted cauliflower, squash and fennel, separately of course. A little olive oil, salt and pepper. We get that going while cooking the big meal for the week. It works out great because it's fast, easy and we use up a ton of the veggies.

Ren - there is a Paris to Versailles race in the fall every year. You'll have to ask Alec how he liked running those 10 miles ;-)