It is a pet peeve of mine (and pretty much every mother I talk to) that the kids ask every night, "what's for dinner?" Typically, an honest answer is given which is then followed by a whiny "not again!" or "I don't like that! I want _______ for dinner." There is nothing more annoying then working hard to put together a healthy, delicious, and (if at all possible) quick meal and to have everyone complaining about it before you ever even get it on the table.
One of my friends gives the same answer every night: a sarcastic "Yummy Goodness!" Another friend offers her children two choices for dinner: "Take it or leave it." When my kids ask me "what's for dinner?" my answer is always the same. "Poop."
Today is a Tuesday so you all know what that means....BAKING DAY!! The last few weeks I've been coming home with loads of tasty sweet carbs so I thought this week I would make something to bring home for dinner instead of dessert. I found two recipes in a magazine that sounded delish!
One was asparagus-prosciutto pastry puffs. This yummy appetizer is made with frozen pastry puffs, filled with herbed cream cheese, a slice of prosciutto and an asparagus spear. Everyone at baking day found their taste buds to be delighted with the treat! We ate most of them while we worked.
The other dish I wanted to try was a creamy herbed spinach soup. It looked so pretty in the magazine,, garnished with croutons and parmesan cheese. Besides the obvious ingredient of spinach, it also had garlic, onion, basil, olive oil, sour cream, heavy whipping cream and parsley. I'm not a parsley fan so I left it out. The ingredients are cooked and then pureed together.
We worked hard today! Besides those two things I also made natillas which is a pudding that my Grandma makes. (Tastes like a very yummy tapioca.) Same as the soup, I made six recipes of it. Whew! One of the gals made banana bread. Another made orange-gingerbread biscotti. There was also breaded chicken tenders, buttermilk bread, chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon rolls and chocolate pudding. (Is that all? I think it is.)
I decided for dinner tonight I would serve the breaded chicken tenders on top of a salad, with a side of spinach soup.
When Aaron got home he announced that he was hungry. I had three of those asparagus puff things left and so I heated them up for him to taste. He bit into one and had a thoughtful look as he chewed.
"Do you like it?" I asked.
"Um...yeeeeah..."
"Well, what is it?"
"I just can't place this taste..."
"Rosemary?"
"That's it, " he said and he put the puff down.
We then noticed that it was starting to snow out. Just a touch was falling. We have a lovely view of mountains/hills from our home. The distant hills looked to be getting more snow then we were.
Cool! More snow coming....!
I walked into my bedroom and then back out into the living room just in time to see the hills disappear in a down pour of snow. It was the coolest thing!
Anywhoo...this prompted a rush to the log pile as our in-house supply had dwindled. When Aaron came back in he had lost interest in the asparagus spears. (Personally, I don't think he liked them all that much. Not a fan of rosemary.)
The kids came home, did home work with cocoa by the fire, and asked "What's for dinner?"
"Poop."
"No it's not! Stop saying that mom!"
I was actually pretty excited about tonight's dinner. I was pretty sure it would please all. I made a honey mustard dressing for our chicken tender salad.
Everyone gathered 'round the table. The first thing the kids noticed was the very green spinach soup.
"Ew! What is that?!" Drew asked.
"It's a delicious spinach soup! I know it looks funny but it has lot's of things you like in it like sour cream."
"Does it have whipped cream too?"
"Actually it does. It has something called heavy whipping cream."
"Mmm! I can't wait to try that..." Drew said into his bowl.
First taste though went to the chicken salad.
"This is great mom!" Drew exclaimed, "You are the best chef ever!" It was so good to finally hear some kudos for dinner. Especially after how hard we worked at Baking Day today.
Drew has always had plans to open his own restaurant one day. He has promised me a job there as a waitress. (Oh joy.) After tasting the chicken salad (which I did not actually make, BTW) Drew announced that Aaron will now be the one taking people's orders.
"Mom, you will cook with me. I'll be the one wearing the tallest hat."
Gabriel had not said much about dinner. When I asked what he thought he agreed that the chicken was very good.
"How about the soup? Have you tasted that yet? It has croutons and a little parmesan cheese on it."
"Um...I don't want to hurt your feelings but...I'm a little afraid to try it."
"I understand. It's green. Just have a taste though. You may find that you really like it." I encouraged.
So Gabe took a tentative spoonful....
"Well...?"
"Well, the first word that came to my mind was 'frog.'"
Mmkay. Awesome.
I must've looked hurt or pissed because Gabe said that it was just what came to his mind but that he actually really liked it.
Yeah, right.
I asked Aaron what he thought. He gave his typical dry, "it's good." I really liked it so I finished it all up and started to clear the table. Meanwhile, Drew had finished all of his chicken and was asking for more.
"Well, buddy you have not even tasted your soup yet."
"Umm...I change my mind. I don't want more chicken. I'm full."
"That's fine but I would like for you to at least taste the soup."
Drew looked down into the bowl and weakly stirred it with his spoon.
"Ok, but if I don't like this we are NOT putting it in my restaurant."
*sigh*
"That's fine. Just taste it please."
With a twisted up face Drew raised a spoonful toward his mouth. He opened wide and then...
"Mom, will you stay by me while I try it?"
"Seriously Drew? You are being silly. It's soup. Just try it."
Drew made another attempt. This time his body squirmed with his twisted expression. He raised the spoon to his lips and then...
"Mom, would you just feed it to me?"
"Fine." I marched over to his side of the table getting a little annoyed with the dramatics. "Here...let's get a crouton on that spoon with some of the cheese...mmmm. This is going to be yummy!"
Drew opened wide for the bite. The spoon just made it into his mouth and then....he started to gag. He gagged twice.
"Come on Drew. It's not that bad!" I chided. But apparently it was because Drew spit it all back into this bowl, left the table and then puked.
Aaron started to chuckle but could see my indignant expression of pursed lips and instead got up to help Drew into the bathroom. I grabbed a towel, cleaned up the mess, and started to clear the table. I was so annoyed that no one liked my soup. I worked really hard today and no one liked it. Hmph!
As I was putting the way the soup I confessed to myself that it really was gross looking.
Basically, you made glorified baby food, I thought to myself. And then I laughed! You finally did it. You made poop for dinner!
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