I use my birthday the way some people use New Year’s Day, as an opportunity for reflection and a time to set plans in motion.

This year is no different, as I look ahead to the upcoming months my life will be filled with change. Amelia will graduate from Placer High School on Saturday and will leave in September for UC San Diego.

Hudson will be a junior at UC Santa Cruz and is firmly entrenched in his new community.

That leaves Ed and me to join the millions of baby boomers who are earning the title “empty nesters.”

Although I miss Hudson and will miss Amelia very much, I look forward to re-establishing a kid-free relationship with Ed, my husband of 28 years. There is a certain excitement in contemplating taking up hobbies that have long been displaced by laundry and cooking.

Walking, bike riding, gardening, and yoga all come to mind.

One big thing that will continue to evolve is my cooking routine.

The change began when Hudson left home. When he was home he was eating as only a 17-year-old teenager does, by the truckload. He and his friends were like locusts devouring anything they found in the refrigerator. After he left for college I had to scale down my purchasing quite a bit and it took a while to adjust.

During Amelia’s senior year she has had such a busy schedule that she hasn’t been home as much so I have adjusted again. I buy much smaller quantities and cook much less food at one time. The mistakes have been pretty funny unless you are my husband who tries his best to eat the leftovers.

My days of cooking whole boxes of pasta are pretty much over.

I think my husband will enjoy the change. I can resume cooking small quantities and concentrate on quality. It will be very nice to spend time reducing a sauce or adding something as simple as onions to a salad and not have someone saying “yuck!” when they taste it.

Preparing locally grown, seasonal, and easy to prepare foods has great appeal to me.

Sure, I will still get out the Jacques Pepin and the Alain Ducasse cookbooks, but for the most part, Ed and I will enjoy real food grown in Placer County.

So, here comes another birthday and another year of wonderment. It’s time for another trip down to Mono Lake and a hike to Rainbow Falls. It is also time to explore Portland. I hear they have great bike trails up there in the North Country. I will visit farmers’ markets wherever I go and report back to you on what I see.

I am confident I will return home grateful for all of the farmers and ranchers we are blessed with right here at home.

And, of course, I will be earning Southwest frequent flyer miles flying down to San Diego. Too bad there aren’t frequent driver points for traveling between Auburn and Santa Cruz.

Hudson, good luck in your third year as a banana slug.

Congratulations Amelia, Placer Class of 2009. We love you.

Carol Arnold is marketing manager for the Foothill Farmers Market Association. Contact her at foothillfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

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Grilled Sweet Onions

This is a very simple recipe that produces amazing results. The key is using a very fresh sweet onion. The onions I used were picked on Friday, purchased on Saturday, and grilled on Sunday. They were so tender and so sweet even Amelia ate them.

I served these onions with garlic bread from Grateful Bread and beef ribs from Coffee Pot Ranch. The ribs were rubbed with steak rub from the Two Spicy Ladies and baked slowly for two hours. In addition, I sautéed onion from Ueki Gardens with squash from Pilz Produce. We had a wonderful, easy, summer meal.

Ingredients

1 whole sweet onion per person

1/2 teaspoon granulated beef or chicken bouillon per onion

1/2 tablespoon butter per onion

preparation

Preheat grill to 350 degrees. Slice the root end off of the onion. Slice off the top of the onion. Peel. Cut a large, deep X in the top of the onion (not the root end). Spread the butter over the top of the onion. Sprinkle the bouillon over the butter. Place on a double layer square of aluminum foil, large enough to pull up over the onion. Wrap the onion in the foil. Place directly on the grill.

Cover and cook at 350 degrees for one hour.