I love cookies. We spent the afternoon today baking some. I got so tired I wished I had just sat down and ordered some online.

Some will argue that homemade are so much better, but depending on where you get them I might have to disagree. If you get them from the right place there is nothing better than a box of chocolate chip cookies being delivered to your front door.

The wife loves cheesecake and the kids are partial to brownies, something like a Cookie of the Month would be awesome for us. Of course we’d have to start working out or something to make up for all the goodies.

As you know by now, we do a lot of cooking around here. I love to tinker with new recipes, and the wife loves baking. There is nothing better than waking up to the smell of fresh baked bread.

We haven’t had any “store-bought” bread in the house since we went to the restaurant supply store and bought the bread loaf pans that she has wanted for an eternity. I love looking at professional cookware too. If I had some extra money I would replace everything in our kitchen with brand new, shiny cookware.

The next purchase I want for the kitchen is a meat slicer. I had one a long time ago and I would love to have another one. I just have to find the right one when I am looking at restaurant supplies, then I will be all set. For a while at least.

Now to find the next great recipe.

Our middle son wants to be a chef. He loves cooking very much, and helps out in the kitchen all the time. For Christmas this year one of the things he wanted was “cooking tools”.

We made sure he had a small saucepan and a small food processor among other things. Since Christmas he has helped me cook several times, but he has only used his tools twice. I can’t remember what he made the first time, but tonight his tools were used again. This is what was made with his cooking tools:

Any idea what it is? Okay, I will tell you. Lettuce that has been boiled and chopped.

Why? To feed the tadpole he adopted this week, of course.

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As I mentioned the other day, our middle son, who is 8, decided to cook dinner for his mom for her birthday.

Here is the “menu” he prepared for her:

Joseph’s Hacienda Grill
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Beverage
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Pomegranate Cocktail

Appetizer
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Grilled Mozzarella & Black Pepper Quesadilla with Prosciutto di Parma

Entree’
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Pan-Seared Steaks with Garlic Butter Sauce
Grilled Bread with Garlic Butter & Fresh Herbs

Vegetables
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Asparagus Milanese
Roasted Seasoned Potato Wedges

Dessert
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White Chocolate – Banana Cream – Coconut Pie

I will post each of the recipes he followed (or created). A couple items were inspired by, or from, Bobby Flay’s cookbook (Bobby Flay is his all-time personal hero), and one was a recipe from Mario Batali (my favorite). One of these days I will get video of him cooking. He’s awesome already, I tell ya.