what's up wednesday [4.29.20] - err, Thursday?

I'm joining in on my very, very favorite blogger's 'What's up Wednesday' linky party!

....errr, on a Thursday?
...It's been a WEEK over here!

1. WHAT WE'RE EATING THIS WEEK...

I have been working, and working, and WORKING on a post that explains how I grocery shop and meal plan for my busy, busy family of 6 - but for now, I'll leave you with this...

We 'Taco Tuesday' HARD over here ;) 

2. WHAT I'M REMINISCING ABOUT...

...Yes, that is a terribly horrible quality photo of 5 year old Liam doing a victory dance at home plate.
Ha!

My Facebook memories are currently all.things.baseball. which makes me so, so sad.. especially for the boys..

BUT!

We received an email from our little league's baseball president with the green light to get ready for little league to gear up in JUNE! Agh! I have three excited, excited boys (one being an overgrown 'boy') over here! Over in our neck of the woods, most little league seasons were altogether cancelled so we are SO HAPPY that we will be playing baseball SOON!!  

3.  WHAT I'M LOVING...

I sent this photo to a friend of mine the other day because my beloved 'Cinnamon Spiced Vanilla' candles (from Bath and Body Works) FINALLY arrived after 2 weeks of waiting.

Listen, this scent is what I call 'canned home smell' - it is just EVERYTHING you'd want your home to smell like... so warm, so cozy... and on a 365 day rotation over here ;)

SO worth the wait, but B&BW, please come back to me soon.. this long distance relationship isn't working for me :( 

4. WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO...

Oh ya know, just working on getting those scholarship dollars ;)

Seriously though, we are LOVING the warm weather.  I don't know if it's the current 'state of mind' that we're all in, but we have been taking advantage of every second of all of the nice weather we've been having!

5. WHAT I'M DREADING...

Ya know, this one is a bit of a double edged sword.

I am so ready for some normalcy.  So, so ready. 

I have missed seeing my co-workers in the hallways and I (never thought i'd say this...) miss getting up, getting ready and going to work everyday (I'm working here there and everywhere, currently!).. I am ready to go back to our regularly 'scheduled program'

HOWEVER, I would be lying if I didn't say that I have enjoyed getting to be home with my crew every so often.  Even though i'm tucked away working and they're 'homeschooling' away with their dad, it feels kinda nice knowing we're all together.  

So, I wouldn't exactly say that i'm 'dreading' going back to work full-time (cause Lord help me Jesus I AM READY!) but i'm gonna miss being around these crazy guys of mine!

6. WHAT I'M WORKING ON...

Shhh!

7. WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT...

Normalcy. and, see above! I have two May birthday boys!!

8. WHAT I'M CURRENTLY WATCHING/ READING...

Yes, yes, yes! I can't actually say that i'm currently 'watching' this because I binged this show in, um.. 2 days. It was SO. GOOD. 

Tyler and I are OBSESSED with docuseries so what should we watch next? Help a sister out.

9.  WHAT I'M LISTENING TO...

Right this second?

Andrew Bird's dual set of his albums 'Break it Yourself' and 'Hands of Glory'

His voice is just calm and dreamy and peaceful and yummy, and his music is so upbeat but calming and chill and #avibe all at the same time.  The strings in his songs are melting.

...sorry. Got carried away, ha! If you are into alternative music and HAVEN'T listened to AB (which in that case, um why?) allow me to point you right towards his direction.

...If you ran into  20 year old Emily cruising around in her 1993 Jeep on a nice day, I promise he'd be blaring through the speakers ;)

10.  WHAT I'M WEARING...

All. the. things. that. you. don't. want. to. see.
Aka: leggings and my husbands t-shirts, ha! Because while I'm writing this I have just completed my evening Yoga, and, well #quarantine.

Well, that's all for this Wednesday, err... Thursday! 

See you tomorrow!

taco tuesday: doritos taco salad

Story time!

I know you came here for some Taco Tuesday goodness but hear me out for a sec...

Wanna know a weirdo quirk about me?

...I hate, hate, HATE eating with my hands.

Having to eat something with my hands gives me immense anxiety.

Always has.

To the point that I have 'established protocols' in place when I am faced with potential finger foods, including but absolutely not even closely limited to:

1. MOVIE THEATER POPCORN:  Never, ever, ever will you find me in a movie theater without my hair pulled back in a pony tail. Ever. I have this phobia of my long hair potentially getting into the buttery-greasy popcorn, thus making me smell like greasy popcorn all day long, that I just cannot overcome... so my hair gets pulled up.

Oh, and if you ever go to a movie theater and go to get napkins at the concession area and find that they're out... Sorry, i'm probably in the theater ;)

2. HAMBURGERS: Oh man.  Tammie Gee, I already know what you're thinking and you probably have more anxiety reminiscing about the screaming and crying than I do ;)

Listen...I was a kid that liked all. the. things. on a hamburger.  Not a ketchup only kid... a give me all the condiments, kid. And many times did that almost ruin mine and my mother's relationship, ha!

...nearly every. single. time. I would eat a hamburger, the hamburger would fall apart (because I had small hands, eating a THICK burger, ok?)... and I would cry and get so, so agitated... and pretty sassy about it.

So my mom started cutting my hamburger up for me and the rest is basically history ;)

3. PIZZA: Well I mean it wasn't until I married my husband that I was told that eating pizza with a fork wasn't the 'typical' way of eating pizza... hm... ok? Sure pal.

...cause picking that triangular shaped ball of grease up and just biting from it is just not going to work for me.

...but the most absolutely unacceptable finger food for me? That I do not even eat because of the potential for falling-apart-messiness is just so, so great?

TACOS.

Hi, my name is Emily, and no, I don't want to go to $5 taco Tuesday night with you and your friends.

I'll strongly pass.... or i'll go and cut up my taco and you'll look at me super funny (based on true stories!).

In my defense, my mom never really prepared me for a 'Taco Tuesday' loving society that we live in today.  I honestly cannot remember 'taco night' ever being on a meal rotation growing up (probably because she knew it wouldn't end well...)... but, wanna know what I do remember?

Doritos Taco Salad.

My mom showed up for Taco Tuesday.. in the form of a taco salad, that you ate WITH. A. FORK.

...and i'm forever and always here for that. AND! So are my kids..

9 out of 10 times I lob over making tacos, they chose a Doritos taco salad instead. #raisinggoodmen

So there you have it.  Fellow anti-finger-food-friends, feast your eyes on this yummy, clean, bad boy and add or take away whatever you'd like.. here's our typical go-to's:

this feeds 6 hungry, taco-ish loving folks plus leftovers!

SHOPPING LIST:

2 pounds lean ground beef 

2 packs of taco seasoning

Mexican cheese

Nacho Cheese Doritos (or as my kids call them, the red doritos!)

1 Avocado

Lettuce (we buy the preshredded lettuce)

3 roma tomatoes

Sour cream

Purple Onion (...call it like I see it!)

Mild Ortega Taco Sauce

DIRECTIONS:

Cook your ground beef until crumbly.  Add in your taco seasonings and a cup of mexican cheese.  Stir until combined. Crush up a bag of Doritos and prepare all of your toppings (chop 'em, slice 'em, you do you..), call your kiddos to dinner and 'make to order but-no-Liam-you-can't-just-have-cheese-and-meet-you-have-to-have-a-veggie' their taco salads... 

Enjoy with a FORK and NO MESS ;) #praisehimpraisehim

Until tomorrow,

hulk smash smoothie

Over the weekend I posted this photo of Lake drinking one of my 'hulk smash smoothies' and ended up getting a ton of requests for the recipe!

Listen, this recipe is nearly 10 years old and was originally created to get my eye gouging picky then sweet baby, Liam to ingest SOMETHING that was 

1. not french fries; 2. not covered in ketchup and; 3. borderline healthy.

When I first made it, my 3 year old, Avenger's obsessed toddler was SOLD when I presented him a GREEN drink that was going to make him 'grow muscles like the HULK'!

He quickly deemed it his 'HULK SMASH SMOOTHIE'... and ya know what?

...it didn't work.

At. all.

One sip and he was all, nah I'm good... ha!

BUT I blame that on his morbid-even-if-I-like-it-i'm-not-gonna-tell-you-I-like-it-in-fear-of-you-making-me-actually-eat-something-that-isn't-french-fries pickiness... not his ability to taste the boatload of spinach that I put in it ;)

Oh well. You win some and you lose some....

...and for me? Even though I've gone 5+ years banging my head against a door working through his pickiness, a super delicious and nutritious smoothie came of it that I make ALL THE TIME... So, thanks for that, Liam ;) 

Now before you're all 'hi I'm also picky like your someone just come and get him at dinner time beloved son' - give it a shot! My normal less picky of an eater (ha. Let's actually be real, he isn't picky at all #thankyaJesus) 18 month old drinks the mess out of these smoothies (how's that for a southern sayin'!)!

;)

I give you exhibit A & B:

See? No grimaces, no gagging... Just your averagely large toddler smiling away and enjoying a super healthy smoothie, not knowing it's a super healthy smoothie ;)

Alright. The recipe.

This particular bad boy (the smoothie, not the baby) is PACKED with yummy, spinach-y goodness, but you do you.  Pick your 'green veggie' fancy.  My personal favorite is substituting the spinach with Kale for a 'nuttier' flavor but maybe i'm a rare bird... Anyway, go crazy... no judgement here.

...unless you use something like iceberg lettuce.

...then I might look at you funny...

This will make about 24 ounces (Think a big glass for you and a little glass for your picky spawn sweet kiddo!)

SHOPPING LIST:

2 1/2 cups of baby spinach (or your choice of green goodness)

1 *frozen banana (little tip: whenever our bananas start to get overly ripen, I peel them and put them in freezer bags so they don't go to waste ;))

A handful of *frozen pineapple chunks 

A handful of *frozen mango chunks

1 cup of coconut milk 

1 teaspoon of black chia seeds 

DIRECTIONS:

In a blender, pack your spinach and coconut milk in and then add your frozen fruits and chia seeds.  Using the 'smoothie' or highest speed on your blender, blend until nice and smooth!

*NOTE: You can DEFINITELY use fresh, not frozen, fruits for this smoothie (we always just buy the big, bulk frozen bags!) - however, if you chose to use fresh fruits (or mostly fresh) - add a handful of ice cubes after you have blended your ingredients together, then blend your ice cubes in on your highest setting.

So sneaky, sneaky good, and a perfect, guilt free treat! 

See you tomorrow!

friday favorites [4.24.20]

Happy Friday!

I'm linking up for another Friday Favorites...

Tyler and I are still going strong with the 30 days of Yoga with Adriene on YouTube and we are loving, loving, LOVING it! I feel so much more flexible and my days of stiff and achey-ness are starting to become few far and in between.  #thankyaJesus #thankyaAdriene

...Listen, I am not a yoga master, but I highly recommend this for someone who may want to loosen up a little ;) 

I posted this photo earlier in the week after I put away all of my Easter decorations and had so many people asking me about whether the tulips were real or not... and... they aren't! *gasp* the green-thumbed genes in me sunk their heads low when I purchased them (I'm all about having fresh flowers in the house!) but all of the kid's and my allergies this spring are KILLER, so, faux it was.

These tulips really do look life like and seriously feel so REAL! They aren't 'silk' or 'papery' at all.

You can find them here in lots of different colors!

...I'll warn you though, they STINK.

So bad that they sat outside for a few days AND there are dryer sheets hidden in that vase with them ;)

...beauty is pain, right?

My parents showed up on Easter morning with a little surprise for the boys (and me!) - that I totally failed to take pictures of!! It was a new blender/ food processor combo and a basket full of supplies to make yummy milkshakes (strawberries, bananas, cherries, whipped cream, ice cream, etc.) and now, we're hooked (thanks mom and dad!)! Over the last week or so we've been making milkshakes a few nights a week for a yummy dessert and I've been making my Hulk Smash smoothies for lunch.

You can find our blender/ food processor here and my Hulk Smash smoothie (affectionately named by 3 year old, Liam) will be comin'atcha next week!

Yes, we're watching this... no, I don't want to talk about it. Ha!

Anyone else?

You know, this whole quarantine has had it's perks around here (more on that later!)... I couldn't tell you the last time I picked up a book (that wasn't a textbook...) and read but I've made a point to do some reading lately.
My friend Erica lent me this book and so far, I'm loving it! It's a light, easy chick-lit... the perfect read to get back into the 'reading' waters :)

Well, that's all for Friday favorites... see ya Monday! 

Liam makes Sunday Dinner

Phew! We are at the finish line of our 'guest chef' weekend!

...well, technically we were weeks ago but today you're at the finish line with us ;)

Liam was our last 'kid in the kitchen' and he was presented with the challenge of making dinner on a SUNDAY.

Now, maybe i'm old school - but there is something about having my whole family at the table for a big meal before kicking off another week. 

Monday thru Thursday looks a lot like casseroles, crock pots and one pan meals...

but Sundays look like Thanksgiving's younger brother.

If you were to sit at our table on a Sunday, you'd see a meat, at least 3 veggies and in most cases, a dessert of some sort.

I show up on Sunday's ;)

SO, when we were presenting the kids with this challenge (and if you're just tuning in, you can read about it here) - the thought of having some 'one pan meal' show up on my Sunday table gave me the shakes.

Until good ole Liam presented me with his choice of recipe.

A 'Jalepeno Peach Chicken' from Mix and Match Mama.

And I thought, "Chicken needs sides... I can work with this"

So that's how Liam earned his spot in the Sunday Night Dinner Chef Hall of Fame ;) 

Ok, here we go...

...my pickiest eater of the bunch... and why he chose a Jalepeno Peach Chicken instead of something like 'Pizza Casserole', we'll never know ;) it's just what makes him, him!

The flow we established with Corbin and Mason had been working really well up to this point, so we stuck to it.

Read, read, read through the recipe and retrieve and prep all of your ingredients...

 Yep. That's a big knife.  

Let's talk about knives really quick.

Remember, the idea was to let them go at this with minimal to no assistance...

When thinking it through, one of the first concerns I had was to what extent I was going to allow them to use knives.

Instead of giving them a hard 'you can't cut anything' rule - I figured we would take it ingredient by ingredient and go with their comfort level.  I'd let them watch me cut first, and then i'd give them the knife and see how they handled it.  I know that sounds pretty rogue, but trust me, the minute you hand them the knife, you can tell pretty quickly how they're going to fair with it just by the way they hold it. So it really just depended...

For Corbin, I helped him chop his onion.  His hands were a little too small to be able to hold the onion with one hand and cut with the other, so he put his hands on top of mine and we cut together.  

For Mason, we did practically the same thing with the onion but he led the way.  Now, for the kielbasa, he was using a smaller, serrated knife that he had to utilize a more 'saw' like motion as opposed to a straight slice... I was comfortable with him doing on his own.

For Liam, he only needed to slice green onions.  Green onions are fairly 'stable' and don't move around much.  Again, I showed him what I wanted to do, and he carefully followed directions.  Obviously I was close by incase an emergency trip to the hospital was needed ;) but he demonstrated that he was comfortable with the knife and wasn't acting like a total bonehead goofing around. 

Another thing that really helped with 'slicing' (I didn't worry as much with the 'sawing') was saying 'find all of your fingers' every time before i'd let them slice.

...clearly it worked as we still have thirty fingers well intact ;) 

I know.

Kids, well, BOYS + Knives = FRIGHTENING

Of course, I cant' speak for all of the wild kids out there but my three were so extra careful and I think knowing that I was trusting them to be cautious helped.  

...and if it makes you feel any better, he actually had more trouble cracking these eggs than using a knife ;) He got it down, though!

Liam had to bread the chicken breasts in egg and flour... This was a GREAT opportunity to talk about the importance of handwashing and cleanliness when handling your/ other peoples food.

....and I mean how appropriate of a time to reallllly push handwashing than right now ;)

...cause 'rona and raw chicken ain't no joke ;)

Once he breaded the chicken, it needed to bake in the oven, so while he waited for his chicken to finish cooking, he gave Mason his table setting 'wishes' and Mason went to work on setting a beautiful table service..

...We now have three boys that are able to fully set a table correctly.

Yesssss!

Liam helped me with the sides and did a very, very good job!

Dinner was... different.

(We also learned that Jalepenos ain't no joke either ;))

But overall, delicious - Liam did beautifully!

The boys loved, loved, LOVED doing this and I was actually pretty surprised at how little assistance they actually needed... They've requested to do this 'all the time' (insert me fainting.) but we've agreed to let everyone cook a meal once a month.  Three nights out of thirty? I can handle that.

I'll be back next week with my takeaways and suggestions of how to get your kids in the kitchen and how to keep yourself out of the bottle(s) of wine while doing so.

Mason makes dinner

Another kid in the kitchen, another delicious dinner!

If this is your first time reading, you can check out the details of our kids in the kitchen endeavor here

and you can see how Corbin did here.

So after Corbin's go at a 'Sloppy Joe Pot Pie' (that was SO YUMMY), it was time for Mason to take a stab at his cooking skills.

After skimming through Mix and Match Mama's: Kids in the Kitchen cookbook, Mason chose her 'Sausage and Shells' recipe.

...we fell a tad bit victim to the 'panic shopping' that's been going on and couldn't find any shell noodles. So we bought Penne and renamed our recipe to 'Sausage and Tomato Pasta' - wahlah, improvising ;)

He followed the same 'flow'...

He started by reading through the entire recipe and retrieving all of his ingredients. 

After gathering his ingredients, he needed to 'prepare' them (or as he said, 'do something to them', ha!)

For Mason's dish, he needed to chop an onion, slice up a kielbasa, use a garlic press to mince garlic and measure out quite a few ingredients. 

Now here's the cool part...

This particularly member of our bunch isn't crazy about math... namely fractions (hi, hello, it's me, his new homeschooling teacher so I know these things ;))

...did you notice that he was having to cut the kielbasa into fourths?

...and the measuring cups?

Wahlah: A quick and simple math lesson.

As it turned out, Mason realized that math actually existed OUTSIDE of a workbook, and actually having to visually 'fraction' out the ingredients helped the information stick.

Mason did a great job delegating some of the work to his sous chef, Liam (like the super fun job of getting skin off of garlic cloves!)

After he 'prepped' his ingredients, it was time to add everything to the dutch oven.  He sauteed the onions, garlic, and kielbasa and added everything else according to the recipe completely on his own.

I've said it once and i'll say it again.

Measure. everything. separately. into. a bowl.

This gives them the opportunity to mess up without ruining their dish!

Mason accidentally poured a little too much red pepper flakes (yes, RED. PEPPER!) into the bowl and we were able to correct it before our mouths ignited into fire.

LET THEM MESS UP... in a controlled environment ;)

While his sauce simmered, he worked with Corbin (his 'table setter') on creating a beautiful table service.  He chose our pasta bowls on silver chargers.

...I give him an A+ on practicality ;)

Corbin and I worked together to create the first table setting and then he went on to set the rest of the table perfectly!

Now let me go ahead and tell on myself for being a doubting Thomas.

Out of the three recipes chosen by the boys, I was the LEAST excited about Mason's.  

Of course, Tyler and I agreed to put our game faces on and compliment all three of their dishes (and clean our plates...) but i'd be lying if I didn't say I was not. at. all. looking forward to eating Mason's dinner.

...something about the words 'Sausage and Shells' just made me think of cafeteria food.

....but oh man. OH MAN. It was DELICIOUS!! So delicious that all of us indulged in seconds and I absolutely cannot wait to make it again.

...Isn't it funny how things like that happen?

Mason served up, hands down, one of my new favorite pasta dishes, got to see MATH IN ACTION and really had to read and comprehend what the recipe was telling him to do, and then he had to do it!

Great, great, great teaching opportunities that sooo resonated with him.

You can find the recipe he used here -  HIGHLY recommend making it (because if my nine year old can make it, so can you!)

We'll wrap up with Liam's very unique dish soon!

sheet pan supper: kielbasa, sweet potatoes and snap peas

After sharing my lemon-garlic aioli recipe, I thought I'd lob over a recipe that the aioli ALWAYS accompanies!
My sheet tray suppers are great for a night when you have leftover produce you're needing to cook before it goes bad - my kids call them 'leftover trays' - Ha.  They're not made from leftovers - they're made with the mantra of not wanting to waste food.. which, I guess is the same thing ;)

This dinner is completely customizable to whatever produce you've got on hand!  

On this particular night we had a few of my dad's homegrown sweet potatoes and some sugar snap peas that I decided not to make earlier in the week.

This feeds our family of 6 - plus a little bit of leftovers

SHOPPING LIST:

2 packages of Kielbasa (or any other sausage of your liking - we like the smoked Polska sausage!), cut into portions (or you can cut them into medallions!)

4 sweet potatoes, cut into strips* 

A pound of snap peas*

(*or whatever veggies you have on hand!)
1 lemon
Cinnamon

EVOO

Salt and Pepper 

DIRECTIONS:

Line a baking sheet with foil
In a mixing bowl, coat your snap peas with a little bit of oil, as much salt and pepper as you'd like (I use a generous pinch of both) and the juice of 1 lemon
In another mixing bowl, coat your sweet potatoes with a little bit of oil, S&P and as much cinnamon as your heart desires

Add your kielbasa and veggies onto your lined pan, making sure that all are spread evenly onto the tray (since we're a family of six, sometimes we utilize a few sheet trays depending on what's on them)

Drizzle EVOO and a big pinch of S&P over everything 

Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes and enjoy!

Yum, yum, yum - We love to dip our kielbasa and sweet potatoes into my garlic aioli!

Another quick, super easy cleanup meal for you and your family.

lemon garlic aioli

Eye-balling that tub of Aioli that you see sitting near the Mayo on the shelves of the grocery store?

Psh.

My lemon garlic aioli is a great way to add a fresh and bright little flare to your week night dinner and is easy and quick to make from scratch!

Sausage, pork, chicken and basically any roasted veggie tastes better covered in this stuff...

Now 'Aioli' is basically a fancy term for garlic seasoned mayonnaise - so there's a TON of different ways that we like to dress it up around here (think fresh herbs and spices!)...

This one just happens to be our typical go-to...

this makes about 8 ounces of aioli

SHOPPING LIST:

4 tablespoons of mayo

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

3 garlic cloves - finely minced

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl... that's it!

The aioli will keep in the fridge for up to a week!

May I make a recommendation?

Roast up some sweet potato fries (recipe coming your way soon!) and dip away for a guilt free snack.

Yum, yum, yum!

Corbin in the Kitchen

If you haven't been brought up to speed on how Tyler and I decided to temporarily lose our minds become super-parents, here's the cliff notes version:

1. We really wanted to try and find a way to incorporate some 'brain jogging' into something other than online assignments and worksheets..

2. We decided to challenge the boys to utilize their reading, math, listening and direction following skills and make. us. dinner. all. by. themselves. (...and yes, the jury came back and verified that we've lost it...)

THE RULES:

1. Select a recipe book, read through the book and choose a recipe you'd like to make

2. Make your grocery list (we did the shopping, cause, well #coronavirus)

3. Select your 'team' (since we have three boys we had 3 jobs: Head Chef, Sous Chef and Table Setter)

4. Make your meal with minimal to no help from mom
5. Work with your team on executing a delicious meal and a nicely set table appropriate to what you're serving

Phew. Okay, so here we go.

Corbin started us off first by making Mix and Match Mama's 'Sloppy Joe Pot Pie' with baked potatoes as his side.

He started off by reading and retrieving his list of ingredients.

After gathering his ingredients, he needed to do his 'prep work' as he said per his binge watching of Master Chef with his mom the week prior ;) 

(Fun fact: ALL of my kids are OBSESSED with all things Gordon Ramsey!)

For Corb, that meant dicing an onion and measuring out some Worcestershire sauce.

I promised, promised, PROMISED myself before I got started with them that I would LET. THEM. MESS. UP. however I did not want one tiny mistake to result in them making a bad meal. 

SO, a little pro tip for ya if you're thinking about trying this with your kids: 

Have them measure EVERY. SINGLE. THING. out into small bowls.  

Kinda like this Worcestershire sauce:  If I were making this dish, I would have just poured the two tablespoons directly into the browning meat.  

For Corbin, I wanted him to measure it and put it in a bowl. That way, if he over measured or accidentally spilled some, we wouldn't be eating Worcestershire soaked sloppy joes... it would go into the bowl instead of the MEAL... make sense? 

So we individually measure and separate EVERYTHING! 

For this particular meal, Corbin needed to brown a pound of ground beef and add all of his ingredients to the meat once it was cooked and, yep, he did that completely on his own.

I know.  You mom's head's are spinning.

HOT STOVES?!

GREASY GROUND BEEF?!

Breathe and que the mantra (that we learned from Shay!):  SLOW AND LOW.

1. Add, mix, stir ingredients SLOWLY and;

2. Keep your tools LOW (ie: keep your spatula touching the bottom of the pan)

Say it with me...Slow and low.... Slow and low....

We recited this 6 or 700 times. 

When Corbin got his dish into the oven, he worked with Liam on how he wanted to serve his dish (did he want to use a bowl? A pasta bowl? A plate? Spoons? Forks?)

They both decided on pasta bowls on my silver chargers with my orange dessert dishes ;)
I give them an A+ for creativity.

Liam and I had a lesson on properly setting a table.  We worked together to make one place setting and then he went on to 'build' the other 5.

Teaching the boys to set a table was something that I didn't think they'd be crazy about learning, but all three of them really bought into it!

Dinner was served and it was VERY GOOD! 

Corbin executed beautifully and we will definitely be making this dish again (albeit a few tweaks to the recipe that the chef himself has suggested ;)).

You can find the recipe he chose here!