We celebrated the last day of summer (at least on the calendar) with a new family activity we call “Dinner Party”. Here’s how it works. One month ago, 4 cards were created that said “Main Dish”, “Side Dish”, “Vegetable”, “Dessert”. We each drew one card, giving us our assigned part of the meal. The rules are that you have to seek out a new recipe for your part, something we have not made before. You are responsible for making that dish, start to finish. The four parts don’t have to go together either, but it would be nice if they did. We set the table nicely in the dining room and eat our special meal together. If anyone doesn’t like something prepared, we have a standard fall back food (PBJ, butter bread, make some frozen veggies) that you must make yourself.

 Dinner party 1 had me in charge of dessert, Kevin had vegetables, Kayla was on side dish, and Ashley had the main dish. They did some research in my folder and books and online. Ashley decided to make a recipe I had clipped a long time ago called Spaghetti & Meatball soup. She made some modifications to the recipe and ended up with a chicken and tomato broth, little turkey meatballs, and noodles. Here she is making mini-meatballs.

Kayla decided to make a baguette from scratch. She mixed, kneaded, and we found various places to let it rise. Then she cut the slits in the top, brushed with egg white, and baked. Here she is making it.

And kneading it.

Our finished meal then was:

Soup by Ashley. It was very tasty!

Bread by Kayla. It tasted like restaurant quality!

Braised baby bok choy with garlic and fresh ginger by Kevin. The girls tasted it but went for peas instead.

And an easy cherry cobbler using the recipe in my binder from mom. I’ve done peach before years ago, but not cherry (so it counts as a new recipe) and the girls requested something with cherry. A little scoop of vanilla ice cream finished it off nicely!

The girls enjoyed the meal immensely and really took pride in knowing that they cooked the food themselves.

We have Dinner Party 2 scheduled for the first Saturday in November. This time, I have veggies, Kevin has dessert, Kayla has the main dish, and Ashley got side dish.

Remember back a ways when I told the story of the hamster? This little guy pops up somewhere, and if you find it, you are in charge of hiding it for the next person. It has been hidden in pillows, shoes, packed into bags for people taking trips, hidden in the girls’ lunch bags, all kinds of things. Well, the most recent place we found the hamster…..(courtesy of Kayla)…

He apparently needed some reading time. Our turn to hide it!