My goal over the weekend was to find the dining room. And the boxes of herbs and spices. Sounds simple, right? Well, I wish I had taken a before picture of the dining room, because you seriously could not set foot in it. Everything was dumped in there when we moved, so it was the worst room in the house. It was going to be quite the undertaking, but the kids were away for the weekend, so it was the perfect time to be uber-productive. When they came back, I wanted to have our first official dinner at the dining room table.
It started perfectly on Friday when my Mom, thank goodness, unearthed the box that had all the spices and herbs. I swear, it was like finding a long lost friend. Once I got them all unpacked and in the drawer, all the sudden, cooking, really cooking, in the kitchen didn’t seem like such an impossible feat after all. There was just that little matter of finding the dining room. I worked on it all Friday night and most of Saturday. Although I have a small bank of boxes left to unpack along the back wall, I was really proud with how much I got done. When Nick walked in last night and saw it for the first time, I was expecting some big reaction, but, well, he’s a seven-year-old boy, so he barely gave it a second glance. Or so I thought. Earlier today I overheard him telling the babysitter, “We had our first dinner in the dining room last night!” rather excitedly. Hearing him share that was all I needed.
But what to make for our first dinner? I asked Nick what he wanted and he came back with “rice and beans.” Wonderful. So not what I had planned.
“Oh, okay,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. I was thinking more of something like steak or Penne with Vodka Sauce.”
“That’s fine. That’s good,” he said.
“No, it’s ok. If you want rice and beans, I’ll make it.”
“No, what you said is fine.”
We ended up agreeing that we would have rice and beans one night this week instead.
Steak is definitely a crowd pleaser here with the kids, and last night was no exception. I grabbed Rachael Ray’s 365: No Repeats cookbook and flipped through the steak selections, waiting for one to pop out at me, and then I saw it. London Broil with Buttery Potatoes, Caramelized Mushrooms and Zucchini. Dinner. I know Nick wouldn’t like any of the three vegetables the recipe had, but we negotiated and he ended up making it through a few pieces of potato.
The steak, however? You would have thought it was a Delmonico Double Cut No Bone, my favorite steak, the way the kids inhaled it. Nick went back for seconds, and then thirds, and Madeline, seconds, along with mushrooms. That’s my girl. I think the steak could have used more marinating, perhaps a few hours, but it was good and relatively tender. The mushrooms and zucchini? Loved them.
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