Blue Ribbon Service

For all you non French speaking people out there (like me) the translation for today's food (Cordon Bleu) actually translates to Blue Ribbon.  What that has to do with the actual food is well beyond my line of reasoning.  Also, while I'd say 95% of the American population probably thinks Chicken Cordon Bleu, it is actually traditionally made with veal.  Really, the whole thing is rather loosely defined as one type of meat, wrapped around another type of meat, wrapped around some cheese with the whole thing covered in bread crumbs and fried or baked. It didn't originate until the 1950's.  Now that you've been educated, if you can figure out what any of that has to do with blue ribbons, let me know.

Given that it's kind of a loosely defined dish at best, I decided to push the envelope a little further and turn it into something completely different - lasagna!  My lasagna has all of the ingredients of a traditional chicken cordon bleu with the benefit of some noodely layered goodness.  Blue ribbon?  Yes please!

Speaking of blue ribbons, I'm giving one to my kiddos today.  We have a saying around here "When you're good, good things happen" and for the most part my fabulous twosome take this to heart because they know Grant and I actually follow through on it.  So when this morning dawned beautifully sunny and promising to be in the 50's, I had to problem adjusting my plan and taking the kiddos to the park as we'd been hoping to do this entire week of Spring Break.  It was still a bit chilly this morning but we braved it for about half an hour or so and enjoyed every minute.

When we got back, the kiddos were looking to be entertained when I gently explained that we had done something for them and now I had to get on cleaning the house and they were on their own for a bit.  I am pleased to report that instead of the usual drama that sometimes ensues, Noah stepped right up and offered his services in helping to clean.  Mikayla seconded it with a "Can I scrub the potty, Mama?"  

For the next half an hour I put them to 'work' cleaning the bathrooms, dry mopping the floor and dusting everywhere.  Not one complaint and in fact lots of giggling and proudly showing me what they had accomplished.  OK, so I'll admit that I went back and re-did some of it (because I am ridiculously anal and overly concerned about goofy things like a clean house, I know...) but the fact that 1) the offered to help 2) the did it without one complaint and 3) they did it to the best of their abilities led to oodles of praise and a special treat of a bit of red soda with lunch and an extra episode of Wonderpets.  Nothing extreme, but as I said, when you're good, good things happen.  Kudos to my babies!

We're not talking about tomorrow.  In fact, we're (and by we I mean me) refusing to acknowledge tomorrow in any shape or form.  We'll be celebrating caramel, raisin spice bars and Opening Day in Detroit for the Tigers and that's it as far as I'm concerned ;-)  Until then...