Once in a BLUE moon....

Once in a blue moon, every now and then, once in a while, I will actually put my brain to work and it turns out pretty great. Let me start by telling you the back story, I don't know how it is at your house but at dinner time, we lack finesse. We have the staples that everyone loves {spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and pasta, ect.} But my poor little taste buds grow a little weary and would like to be wowed every once in a while. I do try to make things that are a little different, we are not talking escargots here, just something different. But usually it just backfires. So when I make out my grocery list I ask all of the kids what they would like to have over the next two weeks, Of course I get all the favs. Well, here comes the brain working part, I started thinking about how I could start teaching the kids to cook and actually get them to try something new. I came up with a pretty nifty idea. Chalkboard. When I could not find one at ANY store that was under a hundo, I decided to martha myself one.{she would be so proud} Anyway, Each of us, Randy included, is in charge of two nights over the next two weeks. They come up with the recipe, I do the shopping and then if it is their night, they help me prepare dinner. We have had a few snags, usually when it is Randy's night, but overall it has worked great and the kids are eating things that before they would not have touched. I guess that it comes from their vested interest in the meal. Like I said every once in a while I can dust off the ol hat and pull something out :-}