Lucy writes in a question-a-day journal, and a while back the question of the day was “what can you do that most people don’t think you can do?” Her answer was “cook an entire meal for my family.” We asked if she wanted an opportunity to do that, and she looked a bit nervous, but said yes.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2018 challenge. Make sure to click on the photos!

Her first meal was fairly simple: chips and fresh guacamole, tomato soup, and chocolate-dipped strawberries. It was delicious. Emboldened by this early success, she decided to take on an entire easter feast. She chose her recipes from Danielle Walker’s Celebrations cookbook, which specializes in very fancy, very fiddly dishes for holidays and such. It was an ambitious plan, but we went shopping for ingredients, set aside all of easter day for her to cook, and recruited Will (who was in town on a visit) to help out.

The end result was stunning and delicious. Glazed ham with carrots of many colors, a spring salad, lavender lemonade, and “cloudy with a chance of carrot” cake for dessert.

It did end up taking them all day, and it was a bigger project than they had anticipated, but Lucy and Will are still proud of what they accomplished (as they should be). I don’t know if the next project will be this big, but now we know: with a bit of planning, I can take a night off from making dinner.