My mother raised six kids and from what I can tell, she used this cookbook: The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.  And let me tell you right here right now, this cookbook is ESSENTIAL for any parent trying to cook for a family.  While I totally appreciate the research and effort from Cooks Illustrated, I find myself opening it to a recipe and exclaiming in my head, “GET ON WITH IT! I GOT A THREE YEAR SCREAMING HERE!”  If my girl wants chicken pot pie, I simply open up Fannie and she’s got a SIMPLE recipe that can be read while three little cuties are loudly sharing with you their current concerns (e.g.  glue stick won’t turn, lego dude’s gun is not fitting into hand).  I have no time for how the best cupcake is made.  What I need is a quick cupcake recipe that I can read and make successfully while holding a baby and wrangling children.  Fannie Farmer IS that cookbook.  She also has just about every French dish you would want to cook.  Totally amazing.  As I write this post, I have fixed a tiara, fed the baby, printed out a game for the kids and solved a trivial math equation as well as acknowledged and appreciated several small projects initiated by Otto and Lucy.  Add to that “make dinner.”  A look at a small slice of life like that needs a recipe with simple ingredients, quick instructions written for an audience who may have cooked something like this before.  Fannie is my girl.  She also has conversions on the inside cover for Fahrenheit to Celsius as well as various oz to gram nonsense.  No Internet required.  This book lives in my kitchen and I use it daily.

As a side note,  Minty would like to share with you a picture of Lamby’s bum.  Added to that is a picture of the two for context.  Okay, gotta go.  Potatoes are done…