The Search for Miss Direction: Art, Lobster, Waffles and Pecans

They're ba-ack! I could tell from the toothpaste smear across my mirror this morning. OK, their very exuberant presence last night may have been a bit of an indicator, too. Grant has pictures to post but no promise on when those might be making their way here. They had a wonderful time and Minna was delighted to get to spend her birthday with them.

This week is promising to be another crazy one. Noah only has school Monday and Wednesday, I'm heading to Fremont Thursday for Dad's surgery on Friday, Grant and the kids are coming to Fremont on Saturday (where rumor has it there is to be a slumber party at the Singer's!) and then Easter on Sunday. Pure crazy, I tell ya! So in anticipation of the insanity the kiddos and I started work on the table decorations for Easter today. Be watching this week as they slowly start to come together. And on a slightly silly note, not only did we have a blast crafting today but upon arrival home from school Noah taught Mikayla and me the bunny hop dance. Conga line in the kitchen, anyone?

It's also another weird food celebration day around here. Who thinks that lobster, waffles and pecans go together? Um, not me! But as I told Grant tonight as dinner was devoured, sometimes necessity is the mother of all invention. So we made due.

Happy National Lobster Newberg Day! For the cool story on how it got its name you can go here (aren't anagrams fun??) plus it'll give you a little more explanation on what the dish is really all about. Decadent would be the word I would use to describe it. Butter, Cream and Lobster, need I say more? And while the mother of the average three and four year old probably wouldn't dream of serving such a thing to their child, I am happy to report that my children inhaled it. As in, Noah finished his entire dinner and dessert in less than 25 minutes. I tell you, I'm coming up with quite the list - pastrami, clam chowder, mini peppers, fondue - only my kiddos... (Side note, when we were discussing over dinner last night this week's menu and the fact that I had updated April on my calendar I told Noah that cheese fondue will be making an appearance in April. The kid danced in his seat for 10 minutes)

So pecans and waffles, then. We've already seen a couple of different kind of nuts and waffles during our year long adventure and honestly, my original intention was to skip Lobster Newberg and have homemade buttermilk waffles with toasted pecan whipped butter. But then I reminded myself that if possible we try them all and set out to find another way to squeeze in waffles and pecans today. So I turned them into dessert! I made one yummy waffle (Grant got two sections while each of the kids got one) with some toasted pecans in it, topped it off with a scoop of ice cream, added some more toasted pecans and drizzled the whole thing with maple syrup. Grant said breakfast should be dessert more often. Hey, we make it dinner around here often enough, why not? So all three of your foods today, consider yourself celebrated!

Trust me when I say you will definitely want to check on us tomorrow. This Saturday is Bella's birthday (hard to believe my pup will be 7!) and the kids and I are going to make her a birthday cake in Kid Kitchen tomorrow! As an added twist - it's going to be an edible for everyone in the whole house cake! We also may be making a twisty surprise dog treat if we have the time. And we can't forget tomorrow's food - spinach! I'm putting a lazy twist on a classic Greek dish that I have no doubt will disappear like hot cakes around here. (Or disappear like Lobster Newberg. They so crack me up) Until then...