A Grown Up Lunch

My friend and I often lament at how we no longer get to eat out at nice places.  Our husbands get to eat out at some of the nicest places in town once or twice a week for work while we get to indulge in peanut butter and jelly and the occasional McDonalds or Chik-fil-A.  It's not that we're angry that our husband's get to eat out, it would just be nice to have something a little more adult.  I fancy myself something of a cook and I'm brave enough to try just about anything.  But it's difficult to want to do all that work just for me and my son when I know I'm just going to have to cook again for everyone else later.

The other day I was watching Mario Batali on "The Chew" making gnocchi.  I have often heard about gnocchi, but never knew what it was.  Turns out it's just a potato noodle.  I make noodles all the time, so I thought, "I can do that".  Then he made this fantastic looking sauce with just red onion, pancetta and tomato paste, and again I thought, "I can do that." 

So I called my friend who is a little bit afraid in the kitchen and invited her to join me in a gnocchi experiment.  Later that week she came over and while our kids played, we cooked.  It was fun.  We got messy, but in the end we had successfully made a yummy lunch, complete with a fabulous strawberry, almond side salad with a wonderful honey vinaigrette made by my friend.  Even though there were dishes to do, it was very nice to have a "grown up" lunch.

It's taken over a year,  but I think I'm finally learning to have some fun outside of my children, while my children are present.  It takes some extra planning, but it's totally worth it.