Family Dinner
During COVID, when my husband and I couldn't sit down with our two local daughters and their families, I started a family dinner tradition. Sharing a meal is such good family time but, since we couldn't do that, I decided that the next best option was to make enough dinner for our three households and drop it off at the other two.
That way we would all be sitting down to the same meal and feeling some kind of proximity!
When I started this tradition, our youngest daughter was living in an apartment in NW Portland. I would drive there, find a parking space, put on my mask, place the cooler down a few a spaces away and back off! She would then come out masked up, and creep towards the cooler. It almost seems comical, looking back...like was my cooler radioactive??
Now, we are all double vaccinated and boosted so those crazy remote dinners are in our past - hopefully never to be repeated. But I am left with this beautiful cookbook that our middle daughter gave to us....so perfect...AND I still drop off family dinner once a week. But now we share a hug as I hand over the cooler.
Rustic Joyful Food MEANT TO SHARE by Danielle Kartes
Over the week-end, I made the Lime Tres Leches cake from this gorgeous cookbook. I had just bought a new mixer and was dying to try it out.
I have made more than one tres leches cake but, every time I make one, I am blown away by the amount of liquid that the cake has to absorb....and yet, somehow it does!
I just love my little salt dish. I designed it to be used at the table but I keep an extra one on my kitchen counter. I am using my 1/2 Roman teaspoon here...which is actually a bit large for the dish hahaha!
This recipe takes quite a few ingredients. I think it's fun to pull them out and start arranging them like a still life painting!
Needless to say, the cake is EXTRAORDINARY!
A big shout-out to Danielle for this lovely recipe and cookbook!!
