A Few Sorenson Meals

But first, cocktail hour ... because it comes first.

Mark usually has a beer, an ale, around 4:30pm. As you can see, he likes his beer with two olives. They float at first, and this is when you should eat one - with some foam. Foamy, salty, hoppy all at once. You let the other sink and save it for the end. I must say that I love Mark-style cocktail hour.

Mark adjusted meal time so that Sam was eating his dinner with us every night. It usually worked out that we all ate around 6pm. Sam didn't always eat what the adults ate, however. And I am starting to wonder about this. I mean, kids in cultures that eat spicy foods, do they start eating the hot peppers right away? When they are three? When? Sam did not eat the soup above because it had some spicy sausage in it. But maybe he should have.

Why, yes, that is the bread that Irene and I made together paired there with the soup. Thank you for noticing. You are such loyal fans.

Pork with green peppercorn sauce, asparagus, and Melissa's favorite rice. Melissa is my sister. What makes the rice her favorite is that it is browned in butter, then cooked all the way through with chicken stock. I tried to make it once, but failed because I didn't wait long enough for the rice to brown, so I didn't get the nuttiness that you really want on this dish.

Now this looks like something Sam might eat! I don't remember if we gave him a taste. Ohhhh, maybe not because it was a Mexican style macaroni skillet casserole. "Mexican" in that it had chili powder, which really isn't hot. I think Sam had his own meal. Probably chicken nuggets or Cheerios.

That's a pretty good sampling of Sorenson meals, actually. I didn't take a photo of everything we ate, but this is a fair representation. We like hearty soups, pasta with meat sauces, and meat as a classic three-part American meal - that is: protein, carbohydrate, vegetable in a 2:1:1 ratio.