I don't think they should be monitoring every word but to have your kid specifically insist that both parents go to another floor of the house would concern me. Parents should be somewhat in earshot at least part of the time or at least feel free to be.

I agree it seems like an overreaction. I think it seems foreign to many of us that are slightly older. The reality is, in today's world and especially the pandemic world, video chat has become common for a lot of kids. My nieces and nephews do it for school and with their friends all the time. It's different than anonymous internet chat rooms, and much more like a phone call. When I was a kid, I was certainly allowed to have private phone conversations with my friends. I'm not sure how it's much different just because it has video...pretty soon all our "phone calls" probably will. If anything, video is safer than those old online chat rooms because the child knows who they're talking to.

Heck, I might even be swapping recipes on this forum with a bunch of 4th graders! :)

That sounds reasonable to me.

Chicken soup sounds delicious. It's snowy here, so soup would be good.
Yes.

My dinner tonight will be pot roast with veggies and potatoes. It's been cooking away in the crock pot for a few hours now.

I know it's different, but this made me think of my mom's beef stew, part of the standard rotation when I was a kid. She always made it in a pressure cooker. I'm a big fan of slow cooking -- crock pot or even tonight's dinner which is now in hour 25 of sous vide -- but that pressure cooker beef was always tender and juicy. Anyway, your dinner brought back good childhood memories from the 80's, so thank you.

I think of pot roast being in an oven despite the name. I can’t recall how I ate it and as good as it was, I want to cook roast beef / prime rib / meatloaf / other baked meat dishes first. Roast chicken like in Amelie. Surely other dishes.

tonight:
leftover chili with spaghetti
strong chance of spaghetti with Rao’s marinara & Ks meatballs. I still have leftover mashed potatoes & gravy which would be nice with beef kielbasa (despite my having had a Louisiana sausage for my luncheon.

Probably because of the "roast" part!
I've been having a lot of fun with the sous vide machine since my wife got it for me as a Christmas present. Large cuts of beef, like you mention, are wonderful cooked that way. And in most cases it's just a reverse sear. Cook in the sous vide and then give them a quick sear on the stove top before we eat. It's a bit of an upfront investment, but very simple and produces perfectly cooked meat. I can see us still using the oven occasionally for beef, but I'd guess we'll switch about 75% of those meals to the sous vide.

I've been watching the flyers for a sale on brisket at Jewel, Sunset, and Mariano's. No luck yet :)

Happy I could remind you of a great memory.

I'm getting ready to eat dinner soon, and will do that then get back to work.

Anyone have any good parsnip recipes? I meant to order three from whole foods and instead ended up with 3 lb of them.

Didn't they do that to you before with bananas or something?

I use them in my beef stew and in roasted vegetables.

I took some of the big thing of pig stew I made yesterday, added some broccoli, seasoned it up a bit more, and served in a bowl with some smoked gouda, cilantro and fresh tomato/onion/cilantro salsa, with some corn tortillas on the side.

What's she going to do with the other 2 1/2 lbs?

Share with her neighbors? Ship them to me?

Baked cod and rice (adapted from an online recipe, seasoned with orange juice, basil, thyme, lemon pepper & paprika); roasted asparagus, garlic bread.

I think of you using turnips - do you use both turnips and parsnip? I do like the looks of your stew!!