Crazy Coffee Cup Corn Chowder Circus Night

Yesterday was a snow day and I braved the crowds at Wal-Mart to make sure I had plenty of stuff to compete with my friends who like to brag about all their yummy cold-weather fare on Facebook. My bacon-filled Corn Chowder simmered in the crockpot all day while the kids played* and I busied myself with home decorating projects. Great day, right? When dinner rolled around it turns out we'd made our way through all the clean matching dishes and mugs - go figure. So I declared it Choose Your Own Mug Corn Chowder Night. We ate chowder from an ecclectic assortment of coffee cups with salad on the side - and finished it up with... wait for it... Homemade 'Smores Ice Cream! Yep - you read that correctly. And the best part was that our school district had already called school off for today! P A R T Y! Throw something in the crockpot.

*The word "played" here means spent hours scripting, choreographing, costuming, set designing, and rehearsing a Circus of the Snow production in my basement playroom. It was AWESOME and I scored these trinkets at the souvenir shop. They are Seal and Maestro (ie Ringmaster) action figures.

The Details

When I first launched this whole Family Dinner idea I splurged on two new kitchen items: a set of small "on the rocks glasses" that have a nice heft (as we used to say in the catalog biz), and a set of everyday utensils that match. Altogether I spent about $100 and had a gift card from my mom that took care of it. These things make dinner seem a little more special even when it's frozen pizza or ramen noodles. I keep the glasses in a low drawer so my youngest can help set the table. They weren't so expensive that I'd be heartbroken if she dropped one, although she probably would be. And they just add a little touch of formality that plastic tumblers do not.

I have to say that so far making the effort to all sit down at the same time at the same table to eat whatever I fix hasn't seemed like THAT much effort - but it makes a difference. There's usually some tension leading up to sitting down... I'm trying to juggle everything so it's done at the same time, everybody is hungry and a little tired at the end of their day. Once we sit though, most of that tension melts away. There's almost ALWAYS some laughter and a funny quote from one of the kids.

A few nights ago we were discussing whether or not Jello is actually made from horse hooves. Tillie said, "I think anything made from horse hooves would be crunchy." <3

Dumbing Down Dinner

Lightbulb moment!! The food doesn't have to be fancy to have Family Dinner!! It doesn't even have to be fancy to be healthy (ok, maybe the brownies aren't so healthy - I used them to bribe Sam to get a haircut). I've discovered one key ingredient to successful Family Dinner is RELAXED MOM. So sometimes that might look like me having created a culinary masterpiece and feeling really good about it. But it also might look like me throwing some canned beans and Rotel in a pot and serving it with rice so I can sit down sooner and so that everyone will eat without complaint or eye roll. Family Dinner doesn't have to be about the food. It's mostly about the family.

FYI Sam's before and after:

The Book

So here's the book. You can't really click to look inside - that's just the image I copied from Amazon. It got like 44 five-star reviews or something insane like that. Part of that might be because the author, Laurie David, was famous before she wrote the book and has friends like Steve Martin and Michael Pollan. She also used to be married to Larry David, former co-producer of Seinfeld (whose wife ALSO wrote a cookbook, hmmm). Anyway, it IS a really good book. And it's not just a cookbook with recipes (I haven't even tried any of the recipes yet). What I love about it is the philosophy, quotes, statistics, and inspiration.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the book: "People say they don't have time to cook, yet in the last few years we have found an extra two hours a day for the internet."  - Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Ooooooh, BURN!

There's an interview with Judge Judy and lots of other famous people, lots of conversation starter ideas, easy ways to let your kids help cook, and it's just a darn cute book to look at.

I'm not saying you have to buy it. I'm just saying I like it. I like A LOT of cute cookbooks. You might say I have a problem. There's worse things than collecting cookbooks, right?

Tillie Burgers

Since I'm forcing myself to go to bed early-ish tonight I'm just going to do a quick recipe share. Tonight was "free night" where the kids can have whatever they want. Two chose Ramen. One had leftover pizza. We didn't all sit at the table together. That's ok. I'm aiming for improvement, not perfection. But the recipe I want to share is Tillie Burgers. Here it is:

*Get 1 lb. ground beef or turkey or mix 'em
*Add 1 packet Lipton Onion Soup Mix
*Smoosh it all together till it's mixed up
*Spread it in a small baking dish (like 8x8). I have a small Pampered Chef stone I use that works great.
*Score the meat into 16 little squares with a spatula or knife.
*Bake at 350 degrees about 20-25 minutes
*Put little meat squares on Hawaiian rolls with whatever fixins you like

BINGO! I'm telling you this is the bomb! We have Annie Soup, Sam Chicken (because those are their favorite dinners) and these are called Tillie Burgers. So easy, so cheap, and pretty darn good. My "breadetarian" just eats the rolls with mustard and cheese.

Hope you like 'em.

A little extra pop at the table.

Man - tonight's family dinner was a HUGE success. First of all, my husband did the grocery store run. That was like gold. He said it was crazy as we have winter weather coming in. For me grocery shopping is one of the major barriers to homecooked meals. I hate it. So THANK YOU to Jay for taking that off my plate.

With ingredients delivered, I made Lentil Stew (aka Health in a Bowl) and popped a loaf of store bought French bread into the oven. No big deal. I was really focusing tonight on making family dinner about the TIME more than the FOOD.

Here comes the divine intervention.

My daughter's best buddy, Caroline, was here after their girls Bible study. She walked in the door and said, "It smells SO good in here!" Well if that doesn't deserve a dinner invite I don't know what does. I asked, she said she'd LOVE to stay for dinner, her mom said OK, and we added a bowl to the table. My youngest was so excited to have our first "friends welcome" night of Family Dinner.

Caroline can sing. And apparently she likes to sing at the table. She doesn't sing songs at the table, she just adds melody to regular phrases like "pass the butter" and "this soup is hot!" How fun is that?!

We sat, we ate, no one complained or even pouted. Annie said she thought she'd tasted candy in her soup. Fennel. We all learned what fennel is and Sam said it gives the soup a little extra "pop".

What they WILL eat.

My family has a rotation of about 5 meals that they will consistently eat without complaining. It's ME that gets bored. The approved list is: tacos, spaghetti, grilled chicken, pizza (even homemade is good), and mini burgers (a great little recipe I'll share later). We could survive on that. But I'm itching to try all the great looking recipes in my cookbook collection. And I'm sold on increasing our vegetable to meat intake ratio. And that's where the trouble starts. I try to get fancy. Tonight's salmon croquettes with sweet potato fries was a moderate success. I press on using the "expand their palettes" rationale. I mean, I know some picky ADULT eaters and it's not any prettier at age 30 than it is at age 3. HIGH MAINTENANCE.

So my strategy is to try some new things but put some reliable go-to's on the table as well. Mini burgers with some peppered roasted brocolli on the side...

The Kitchen Closet

Just a quick update. I'm cleaning out and reorganizing a coat closet right off my kitchen. It will now be the Family Dinner Closet. Ideas for what will be in the closet:
*fun cloth napkins
*various tablecloths
*APRONS baby!
*inspiring books
*table time activities (this is where it gets fun): doodle books, drawing paper, art supplies, books with thought-provoking questions to start dinner time conversation, family style devotionals, QUALITY magazines. You get the idea. Stuff to get my family connecting on another level.
I'll post photos and details later. Got work to do.

Cast of Characters

A little background on what I mean when I say family...

Me. (top center) Age 40. Grew up with existing but fairly dysfunctional family dinners. NOT a picky eater. Enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. Interested in flexetarianism. Collect cookbooks and tend to go in spurts of real cooking. I get discouraged when the kids won't eat what I cook and end up reverting to canned soup and frozen pizza.

Jay. (bottom right) Age 42. Grew up with high level family dinners. I'd say maybe even quintessential. Not picky but not quite as into the vegan thing as I am. Happily eats whatever I prepare and prepares his own cereal for dinner when necessary. He rocks!

Annie. (top left) Age 11. Picky. We call her our "breadetarian" because she doesn't eat much meat (just because it grosses her out) but she doesn't eat a lot of vegetables either. Cereal, cheese, Hawaiian rolls, Graham crackers, frozen waffles. She remains, however, a peanut. Less than 5th percentile weight for her age. Her favorite dinner: Chicken Soup with homemade dumplings.

Sam. (top right) Age 9. My most adventurous and varied eater. Also gets sick about half as much as his sisters. Likes soups, stews, almost all fruit, chicken, yogurt, milk, orange juice. Favorite dinner: Teriyaki Grilled Chicken. Only eats cheese if it's on pizza.

Tillie. (bottom left) Age 7. Lived on nothing but State Fair corndogs for about 18 months. She's off those now but is still convinced she only likes a handful of things. Her favorite dinners: Mini Burgers and Spaghetti followed by a healthy serving of ice cream. Cries if I tell her we're having fish. Also not a cheese eater.

Come N Get It

Welcome to Dishing It Out. An experiment in raising a family one meal at a time. I recently purchased Laurie David's book The Family Dinner and got inspired. Inspired to overcome my own negative childhood family dinner experiences; inspired to feed my kids real food; inspired to use my creativity in the kitchen a little - both in terms of menu and presentation; but most of all inspired by the idea of something so simple and fundamental as family dinner being so impactful to my kids' long term health and well-being. More on the specifics of all that later... it's time to set the table.