Choppin' broccoli

It's been fun over the past year or so to have Elizabeth's help and enthusiasm in the kitchen.

I'm not sure whether it was License to Grill or Top Chef that caught her attention, or perhaps some other cooking show that she watches during the day with Cate, but Elizabeth has been willing to learn and help.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is preparing Christmas dinner, and it's a role I've claimed for myself. In the retail world, Cate's busiest days are in the final week before Christmas, and since that is when the Division III football season has just ended, I'm home and re-acclimating myself to the family.

So I plan, acquire and prepare dinner for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

This year, Christmas dinner was a leg of lamb, because I felt like doing something new. And we told the kids it was beef, because shoot, we weren't even entirely sure if we would like lamb ourselves. Elizabeth and I went grocery shopping a couple of times before the holiday, and I had her pick out a handful of Granny Smith apples and baby red potatoes. Both are her favorite, and we stumbled on a potato dish that she loves, involving quartered baby reds, red pepper and red onion roasted in the oven. And dinner was a success, even after we told Elizabeth what the main dish was.

One thing Elizabeth is great at is chopping. The other day I added chopped apples to a cookie-out-of-the-bag recipe just because it could involve her. Watching her focus on mincing the apples is pretty cool, I have to say. She also loves to marinade.

And even more cool -- as we were wandering the aisles at Wegman's the other day, she asked if we could make lamb again.

But I can wait. Gotta go find a recipe.

And, in the interim, some new ideas for chicken.