Some recipes - bread and pasta e fagioli - I tricked my kids into making

When my son turned 14 he realized that he "didn't know how to cook a meal" or "how credit cards work." What can I say, my kids have weird fears. So I'm adopting my aunt's philosophy that every child in the house should learn how to cook for the family and learn to make one complete meal. (Note: she had 6 kids, and each of them were responsible for making one night's meal, and Sunday dinner was crock pot roast that she made with all of their help. Smart woman, or smartest woman ever?)

My son helped me bake bread loaves and my daughter made the main course, pasta e fagioli; both turned out FABULOUS. I did add some notes/tweaks to the recipes, and wrote out the recipes like I talked to my kids, so some of it might make you seasoned cooks antsy, as you already know how to do things. :)

( bread and soup recipes )

In completely unrelated to food discussion, this AMAZING shed/outdoor workspace is just totally cool. I love when people show step by step processes. This is a totally do-able thing, too, as long as you have $3000 to build a shed in your yard, that is. :)

Currently I'm trying to design on paper a planter to be hung indoors that a) won't leak b) doesn't cost several hundred dollars and c) can slowly water itself. I love how vertical plantings look and would LOVE for that to be the "artwork" on my dining room walls.

For those of you that have been discussing Big Love with me, justhuman has an AMAZING theory about the whole Adele/Nikki situation that I think is SPOT ON.

And with no spoilers here: I am loving LOST. Loving it.