Our try at a sit down meal.

I'll admit.  We never set the table.  Since we moved up to DC for only a year, I brought absolutely no serving pieces with me.  Plus, I always make double portions of meals, so if I set it all out in front of me, I would easily eat double portions of everything.  (More than I already do.)

Regardless, we had a friend coming up to visit and I spent the morning making a Sri Lankan meal. 

From the top left clockwise, steamed basmati rice,  seeni sambol (Sri Lankan salty, spicy, fishy, sweet and sour condiment of the gods), pol sambol (a close second choice of condiment- coconut and onion based and very spicy), pineapple curry, and appa (otherwise know as hoppers), a fermented rice and coconut milk crepe with an egg steamed on top.   

And the whole spread in its glory.  And like I promised, we ate every last crumb.  We've made hoppers before and they might be my favorite meal on earth, but the pineapple curry was surprisingly good too.  I'm not usually a fan of hot fruit, but the combination of the pineapple with onions and spices was amazing.  It's going on my list of regulars.

Sunday 3 - limping it in...

For this dinner, again, so busy.  I marinated some flank steak, made some cranberry-orange Brussels sprouts, and some potatoes....totally didn't take a picture.  Didn't set the table, nothing, but I did make dessert.



Now, I am not the world's best food photographer (hey, I gotta eat!), but this was good.  I used the recipe from "French Kids Eat Everything" for chocolate mousse.  They talk about it in the book that this was an easy recipe.  And yes, it was very easy!  I put it together in about 20 minutes and then it chilled until dinner.  It was very good!  The kids liked it!



Truth be hold, it was a little rich for Andy, but James and I cleaned our bowls!



Look at Mark eating raw eggs.  Shhh...don't tell!



One more week...not sure I am going to make it!

Sunday 2 - Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

This Sunday we kept it a little lower key. 



No guests, just us.  Ate in the kitchen.  I am not going to lie, this isn't easy.  James has choir until 5:30, plus just regular weekend stuff.  It is hard to make a nice dinner.  While setting the table, I gave James the job of making the centerpiece and helping me pick glasses, etc.  He enjoyed it. 

The meal was from a Deliciously Organic meal plan.  It was butterflied chicken....which I have never done.  Very simple, but a good sunday dinner with asparagus and a baked potato. 

But we promised two courses, so here is dessert.  Strawberry Shortcake!  Also from Deliciously Organic!

Sunday 1

Posting on my blogger ap, while watching twilight breaking dawn part 1, we will see how this goes. X

Had a Sunday dinner last week: Beef stew, salad, and cookies for dessert. We even invited someone over, but he was born in 1990, so I am not sure that counts. The stew was good, but I have posted it before.

The salad, boring, but again, 1990 and plus James wanted salad?

The only new different thing was the cookies. I used a chocolate dough recipe that I then used to make ninja cookies that the kids decorated! I got the recipe from my new smitten kitchen cookbook. Everyone liked them!

January 2013 Challenge - Set the table!

Alrighty, going to try to get back into this and see how it goes.  Sometimes I need a challenge and I hope that someone else out there joins me.  A few months ago, I read the book "French Kids Eat Everything" in hopes of getting some ideas to help my kids eat more of a variety of foods.  I have one pretty good eater...who won't eat pizza... and one very stubborn eater (I'm not going to call him picky, he is just stubborn).  He will eat pizza.  This book was interesting in pointing out some of the differences between our cultures, but honestly, its not really earth shattering.  The one controversial rule was no snacking.  The French apparently do not allow snacking AT ALL.  No snacks!  Ruin your dinner.  Well, except for that little one at 4pm but that has a fancy name of aperitif so it is OK.  (as an aside I have tried not giving snacks and don't really find that it works).

The other thing with the French is when they eat, they eat.  They eat with all their senses including their eyes.  The book talked about they make a big deal about every aspect of dinner.  They set the table.  When I set the table for dinner, I may...but not always...brush the crumbs off from breakfast.  So, for this challenge, I want to feed the eyes as well as the stomach.  I want to set the table.  I am going to try to make a pretty nice Sunday dinner through out the month of January where we eat on our nice china, in the dinning room with more then one course.  Please join me.

Also, just a heads up, the February challenge is going to be using pressure cookers so if you don't have one...get one!