Twice in the past few years our family has had a fun time exploring new foods from the grocery store. Our goal has been to look for something very unusual or something we have always wanted to try, but were too scared to do it. I got the idea one day while grocery shopping in the produce aisle. I had always seen some interesting things, but was always on a mission to get everything on my list, so I would just move on. If you do this, go to the store for the sole purpose of picking out something new to try. It will make the experience more enjoyable. Our evening always involves a lot of laughing. We have made some great memories, and we hope to do it again soon. Plus, I hope we have taught our kids that it is not scary to try new foods.

When we get home with our items, we look them up to get a better idea of where they came from, how to eat them, and what they taste like. Sometimes we have to find out how to even peel some of the stuff.

Some things we have tried are dragon fruit, brie, yellow watermelon, passion fruit, kiwano, Devon Custard, and sprats. Some of the items we loved, others we thought were okay, and some were spit out.

So the next time you have a free night with the family, go to the grocery store and pick out something new to try!

I have been using lemons to clean my microwave for awhile, but yesterday I discovered something even better. I normally put half a lemon in a bowl, microwave it for one minute, then let it sit in there with the door closed for a few minutes. After that I wipe down the inside of the microwave with a damp cloth. Well yesterday while making pumpkin muffins, I spilled about a teaspoon of nutmeg on the counter. Not wanting to just throw it away, but also not wanting to try to get it back into the spice jar, I put it on a plate and set it aside until I figured out what to do with it. Later that afternoon while cutting the lemon to clean the microwave I remembered the nutmeg. So I added it to the bowl with the lemon. While I don't think the spice actually added anything to the cleaning power of the fruit, it did add an extra yummy smell to the microwave. You should try it sometime!

I have been asked by many people over the years how I am able to home school four kids and still make most of my meals homemade, or semi-homemade. I am no genius in the kitchen. Some of you love to cook more than I do, and are even better at it. Cooking and baking for my family are ways I show my love. I try to pour it into everything I make. So here is my trick.

I don't do the dishes, laundry, windows, sweeping and mopping, vacuuming, cleaning up dog poo, cleaning up after the bunny, or trash. My kids do all those things. Each child is assigned a specific job of which they are in charge. From eight to eighteen, they all have their share of duties in our home. Their father and I explain to them that in order to have a home that runs well, everyone needs to help out with the work. The two things I do each week are the dusting (I actually like to) and scrubbing the bathroom. Obviously when you have a house with six people (sometimes more when we have foster kids) there are a lot more things to do than dusting and cleaning the bathroom, but those two are things I put on my to do list each week. The kids also do many seasonal outdoor chores as they are needed. They also help with home renovations and vehicle repair. Not only are our kids a great help, we are training them to be self sufficient adults with many life skills.

Besides having my kids do most of the chores in the house I also do a lot of meal/menu planning each week. I look at our family's schedule and see how we will be able to fit in each dinner each day. Some meals work better on certain days than others. Don't think you can roast a chicken and serve it with all the fixins when you have been gone most of the day on a field trip. That would be a day to pull something out of the freezer. I love to freezer cook for busy day dinners. My kids love to help in the kitchen. They get things out of the fridge and pantry for me, and they stir and chop things for me. My 16 and 18 year old boys make whole dinners for our family and they have been for many years. That is because Rich and I have made it our lifestyle to always have our kids beside us helping out wherever we are, which means the kitchen too.

So that is how I do it. I am no supermom. I am just like you. I love my family and want the best for them. I make plenty of mistakes, but I have hope that each of my kids will grow up and look back on their childhood with fondness.

Yesterday was the last day of Mardi Gras, so I thought we would have a dinner inspired by it. I made New Orleans style red beans and rice, which means you add cayenne pepper and Creole seasoning to your beans and ham hock when cooking. I also made beignets (French doughnuts). I have never made beignets before. They turned out great. I was worried they would be burnt on the outside and raw dough on the inside, but I used a candy thermometer and was careful to keep the temperature at 350 the whole time I was frying.

Making beignets is a once a year thing. They are too good to have more often than that. I think next time I will either cut the recipe in half, or make them when we are having people over. I made about four dozen. That is a lot of little doughnuts, even with two teenage boys in the house.

Frying the doughnuts.

A plateful of yumminess! (I just made up a new word)

I tried a new recipe tonight. The main reason I wanted to try it was because of the beautiful picture of the dish in a cookbook I was looking through. The recipe came from 1,000 Easy Recipes https://www.foodnetwork.com/about-us/food-network-magazines-1000-easy-recipes/index.html. I love this cookbook. I am a very visual person, and it has a lot of pictures of the food you can make from the book.

The recipe I made tonight was Warm Mushroom and Spinach Salad. It was a huge hit with everyone. All I did was saute one sliced red onion in olive oil, then I added two cups of sliced mushrooms and cooked until tender. Then I turned off the heat and stirred in 10 ounces of baby spinach, the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper. Then I sprinkled with a bit of feta cheese. The salad went well with Baked Pesto Chicken and brown rice. https://www.mykitchenescapades.com/2012/02/baked-pesto-chicken.html

I hope you will try the salad. I will surely be making it again for my family!

Crystal

I have a new addiction. I love checking out cookbooks at the library. I have been cooking and going to the library for years, but until a few weeks ago, I never combined the two. I am loving it! There have been times in the past I have looked up recipes from history at the library to help us further our studies in our home school, but that was my extent of cookbook barrowing. I have been missing out.

I just made Oatmeal Cranberry Scones from the Inn Time Breakfast.....Again cookbook that we will be having with our dinner. The cookbook has recipes from Bed and Breakfasts from all over Michigan. It is a travel guide as well, because it gives info on the B&B's the recipes come from. The book is about 16 years old, so I am not sure how many of the places are still open. Since I have been trying to get up with Rich each morning and have breakfast with him, I thought this cookbook would be great for new ideas. I have many bookmarked for the next few weeks of early mornings. A lot of the recipes have make ahead directions that work well for me.

Another cookbook I am loving is 1,000 Easy Recipes. It is from the Food Network. I have made quite a few things from it. I am hoping to get it as a gift for Christmas. The recipes are easy and fun. I like the snack section the best.

Crystal

I made roasted cinnamon almonds yesterday. They are those yummy nuts that you smell whenever you go to the mall. I had some leftover nuts from a recipe I made for Thanksgiving. The roasted almonds were delicious and didn't have as much sugar as the ones you can buy. That is one reason I like making things myself. I get to do it my way, which means better for us to eat.

I have some leftover pumpkin that needs to be used. I think I will make some pumpkin pancakes this afternoon to freeze. Just take how many you want out of the freezer, pop them in the toaster, and serve. It is easy, yummy, and quick.  

The only thing I did this year with the leftover turkey was make turkey salad sandwiches. In years past I have made potpies and casseroles. We always have the exact same Thanksgiving dinner the day after the holiday. It was so good we want a repeat!

I have a couple of sick kids, so since I am home for the day, I thought I would do some extra cooking. I am making a big pot of pinto beans and some brown rice, some to have with dinner tonight and the rest to freeze. Dry beans are very cheap, filling, nutritious, and yummy. They freeze well too! In the past I have frozen my rice as well. We like brown rice. Tonight's dinner will be beans, rice, and corn muffins. It will be the first nonturkey dinner since Thanksgiving.

I made eggs in a hole for the first time this morning for my family. I didn't have a circle cookie cutter, but I did have a heart shaped one. I need to practice at making them. The toast on the bottom got more done than I would have liked while waiting for the eggs to cook. Has anyone ever made eggs in a hole, and if so, what have you done to cook the eggs without burning the toast?

Our garden had many green tomatoes that we decided to pick this weekend. I don't think our vegetable garden gets enough sun anymore since some trees near it have gotten taller, so I think that might be why we didn't get many red tomatoes this year or last year either. I made four batches of Salsa Verde and still have a lot of tomatoes left. The salsa freezes well, which I like, since I have not yet learned to can.

Inspired by the salsa, I decided to make homemade tortillas for the first time this afternoon. They weren't the perfect circles like the ones you can buy, but they tasted better. My kids asked that I not buy tortillas anymore. I made them taco size for some shredded pork. I served the tacos with brown rice and some refried beans.

To make the refried beans I defrosted some pinto beans I had cooked and froze about a month ago. Cooked pinto beans freeze well. I buy big bags of dried beans, soak them over night, and cook them in large batches. I then divide them up into dinner portions for my family and freeze them. I can then thaw them when needed for refried beans for a side dish, nachos, or burritos. Or we can leave them whole and heat them up and eat them. Dried beans are one of the best foods for your health and budget. Beans are full of vitamins, and when buying them dried, they are cheap.

I hope to inspire you to try new things. Our family thinks of eating and cooking as an adventure. It can be exciting trying a new recipe or going to a new restaurant. Don't forget to sit down at the dinner table with your whole family, and with the television off when it is time to eat. I know there will be times that different family members might be busy, but still sit down with whoever is home to eat, and don't make it the norm to not have everyone at home for dinner.  

Crystal

A few years ago our family started a dinnertime game that we call Family Funny Stories. Everyone gets a piece of paper and a pen. We all write our names on the paper and one sentence. We then pass our paper to the person to our left and then we write a new sentence on the paper just passed to us. We keep doing this until the paper with our name on it gets back to us. We then read the silly stories that were created. The sentences we write should flow with the previous sentence so the stories make sense. This game always gets us laughing. If you have a  reluctant writer it will help them write without feeling like it is a chore.

We don't play this game every night or even every week, but we did last night, and it reminded me how much fun it is. I have a folder that I have kept some of the stories in so I can go back and relive some fun moments with my family.

You should try this game or others at the dinner table. If you don't already, start thinking about dinner as an event, and not just a time to get food in your belly.

Crystal