Pictures make a cookbook for me–oh yeah, and the recipes, too, but I like to know what my final product is supposed to look like, don’t you?  I’m in love with this one right now, even though I’ve not made one thing from it.  That will change VERY SOON.

A family cookbook.  I love that.  Liliana helped me make French toast this morning, using cinnamon apple bread from Daube’s Bakery (to die for!…and sorry, it’s a local bakery, so no such luck finding it elsewhere).  She says, with great pride as she’s cracking the eggs and sticking her fingers in the bowl, “Cooking!”  It makes me want to shout for joy.

I absolutely can’t wait to plant seeds with little L.  Oh, come out, sun, every day until it’s warm enough to sow our garden!  What are you waiting for?

I’m looking forward to walking the garden, deciding on what we’ll have for dinner that night.  Will we bring home a zucchini?  Lettuce?  Tomatoes?  I can’t even wait for the canning part, because I plan on doing that, too.  Oh, isn’t it glorious–thoughts of colorful produce coming up from the dark soil–and isn’t it amazing that it actually does?

And can I just say that it warms my heart that popsicles are called ice lollies in this book?  Okay, it’s a UK cookbook, but it just sounds very hip to say ice lollies.

They even include this tidbit:

How to eat your lollies

I don’t think we really need to tell you how to eat an ice lolly, do we?  On the other hand, there’s one rather indulgent bonus you might enjoy.  Try pouring a couple of tablespoons of heavy cream into a saucer, then rolling your just-unmolded lollies in it.  The cream freezes instantly on the lolly, forming a luscious coating.  If you wanted a really swanky coated lolly, you could do the same trick with homemade English custard.

Have I convinced you yet?

How about: Growing Your Own Little Salad Garden?  Or Making Your Own Salt?  Or Sweet Chile and Red Currant Jam?  Or Undressing a Crab?  Or Hosting a Pancake Race?  Or Turkish Delight?  [I always wondered what Turkish Delight was as a child, after reading about it in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe!  Now I know.]

Oh, ecstasy!  So many more things to savor in life.

But first, a movie and dinner date tonight with the hubby.  The cookbook will have to sit here one more day, lonely as ever, until I can get L’s attention long enough to show her all that we’re going to do together.