Snow Day!!!

Snow days create a heck of a lot of angst for most parents.  I was lucky enough to get out for a double spin this morning so the unexpected (well, OK, expected) day with four kids at home had some little adult time.  Our snow days this year have ranged from my being the enthusiastic sledding and hiking mother, to my being a for god's sake, go to your room right now mother.

We had a mix of both today.  Generally, on snow days my children describe themselves as desperately starving,  I can not understand why they would be starving well before their school lunch would have been served, and why they would be starving 10 minutes after our lunch.  It seems to be a mix-up with boredom and a desire to bake treats all day.

Earlier, we had a really great snow day lunch of chopped salad and vegetables:

chopped raw cabbage, jicama, red onion, carrots
kale salad in balsamic vinegar, olive oil and with one sundried tomato (we only had one but Susannah cut it into very small pieces for us)
romaine lettuce and watercress
olives and artichoke hearts
roasted cauliflower in rosemary infused olive oil with chunky sea salt
Lizzie's almonds (sliced almonds sautéed in a drop of olive oil, chunky sea salt and a negotiated amount of maple syrup)

 

 

 

I had it all set up as a salad thing but there was uproar because, understandably, snowy days require hot food.  The cauliflower was piping hot, but Perry felt a need to take out some cabbage and onions and sauté them (which made the whole house smell good).  Then, instead of our typical olive oil and vinegar she needed fancy Dijon vinaigrette that she made for her salad.  Then, I needed fancy vinaigrette with Korean hot sauce which was fabulous on my crunchy raw blend of salads.

 

We had a post lunch gigantic wet hike in Central Park through the treacherous North Woods.  Our two hour hike in deep snow while we were being rained on probably did reliably cause hunger that is kicking in now.  Perry opted to stay home so I forced her to do some math.  And then, we all had a little quiet time before dinner.  Really, no one was quiet and several were sent to their rooms to practice being quiet more than once. 

They asked what was for dinner about four thousand times.  Leftovers in disguise help me avert an anti-leftover protest; they just seems to carry a stigma even if they are left from a meal they loved the first time around.  So our lunch leftovers in disguise were the following:


I sautéed in olive oil, the cut up cabbage, onions, carrots and the whole kale salad with the vinaigrette on it.  Then, each child soaked rice paper in a bowl of hot water and made a little soft warm vegetable wrap.  These were delicious and each child had about four of them. 

The finished product, vegetables wrapped in rice paper