about ginny
In 21 years, I have found I am more organized in all areas of my life, more on my game while participating in a cooking co-op. I need that deadline of delivering my meal at the appointed time. Cooking co-op has helped me with my weight by giving me variety and a plan.
If it's Tuesday, it's my night to cook. But if it's Wednesday its my night for a tennis clinic, or family movie night or a soccer game.
I've been collecting articles and stories for 21 years that I hope to be sharing with you. I have seen how much a family sit-down meal has helped our family. Children need you at an early age, but they need you even more in high school.
I feel like more of a "total woman" in my own kitchen, creating a special meal for my family and friends, listening to John Tesh on the radio, a little dancing, a little singing and getting the task at hand done.
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memorable meal moments
One of my most memorable meals was by Leigh, delivered, on a dark rainy night shortly after I came home with my second daughter Anne, home-made Brunswick stew, ham biscuits and chocolate chess pie. What an incredible meal!!
Grab any good cook that comes in your path. So now that I had found an awesome cook in my new neighborhood, my second cooking co-op started with the perfect number of 4 families just as I headed back to work from maternity leave. It’s true – necessity is the mother of invention! Our children were all around the same ages so we delivered our meals at the appointed time in wagons with the children helping in the deliveries of the meals as a family.
fast forward
Anne now is in the fifth grade and interested in French but she’s too young to take French at her school ...
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Ivy, a young friend from church had majored in French and was a year away from her wedding. So since I had a manageable plan of dinner menus, I asked Ivy if she would come have dinner with us every Thursday night and then spend 30 minutes with Anne, tutoring her in French. So here is this attractive, smart young woman telling Anne about her adventures in France as she lived there one year and going through a book she found to get Anne started in learning another language. End result – Anne went on to take 7 years of French and 6 years of Latin. She got in the University of Virginia and now is a Classics major studying Latin, Greek and German. Thank you, Ivy, for unlocking the key to foreign language. And thank you, cooking co-op, for giving me the spurs to fix dinner weekly and giving me the courage to ask Ivy to come to our table on a weekly basis.
pig lickin' good
Then there was the time that Tracy delivered an awesome roasted red pepper chicken pasta dish and included a big surprise – half of a Pig Lickin’ Cake! She had made extra for co-op while making refreshments for her Bunco group ...
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Not only did I get a great new recipe, but I was reminded of a lesson on giving. She made my day by adding such a welcome gift. So from then on, when I was dividing up my meals and getting ready for delivery - if I had an extra ladle of soup or extra portions of meat or casserole who do you think got it?? That "Pig Lickin Cake (yellow cake, mandarin oranges with cool whip, vanilla instant pudding and crushed pineapple icing)" would come to mind and Tracy's bag was a little heavier than all the rest. This recipe is still a favorite with my USTA tennis team. I set up an incentive plan - every three wins would be rewarded by cake at my house. We won our first 3 matches 1, 2,3 and made it to the city play-offs. The discussion was not about winning or losing, it was about cake.
mishaps? a few.
How about the night the fire truck arrived at our home at midnight? This one Tuesday night, I went straight from work to a gymnastic meet. We got home, had dinner, it’s getting late but I still needed to cook my meal for delivery the next day. I was so proud of myself – trying out a new recipe. Well, the smoke detector went off ...
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I'm scrambling, looking for the code and thought all was well once I got the alarm turned off. Soon thereafter, the door bell rings at midnight and I am thinking, what friend of my teenagers is ringing the door at this hour? As I open the door, with the lights whirling in our driveway, I welcomed the firemen into my home and kitchen. I turned red and explained I was trying a new recipe. Fortunately, I had my cute P.J.s and "scuffies" slippers on for the show. I still owe those firemen a home-made dinner - not burned. That recipe did not make it in future line-ups.
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