The Search for Miss Direction: It's All Greek To Me

I'm all for going the extra mile for this project of mine (see Rhubarb) to celebrate all the National Food Holidays, but I find that I have to draw the line somewhere. Crown Roast of Pork, pass. (Though we did have pork chops!) Turkey Neck Soup, nah. And today, Roast Leg of Lamb, better come up with a Plan B.

So I don't know about you, but when I think of cooking with lamb the first thing that pops into my head is gyros. So I thought that'd be a great compromise and we could make it a whole Greek celebration in Kid Kitchen today.

You can't have gyros without tzatziki sauce so Noah, Kayla and I made our own from scratch. Noah told me, hands down, his favorite part of Kid Kitchen today was 'playing with the cucumber' I put him in charge of everything from peeling, to seeding, to shredding, to wringing it out. He did great and the sauce was EXCELLENT. Both kids tried it as soon as we got it made and loved it and we all decided it was even better after it had sat for a few hours with dinner.

And what's a Greek dinner without Greek salad? Aunt Diane, I pulled out your recipe and we had a great time putting it all together. My daily giggle was provided by Mikayla who had a major meltdown in the middle of Kroger this morning because I decided to buy cherry tomatoes instead of a regular tomato for the salad. She threw the biggest fit ever claiming to not like cherry tomatoes. Then on the way home, Noah asked if he could try one. I told him sure, which of course meant Kayla needed one, too. Mikayla then proceeded to eat 1/4 of the container of tomatoes. Hmmm, thought she didn't like them....

To wrap things up we made Saltine pudding for dessert tonight. Kind of think bread pudding with crackers and coconut. It smelled absolutely amazing while it was cooking and everyone here enjoyed it. Something totally different, that's for sure.

My favorite moment of the whole day was as I was prepping for dinner, Kayla walks into the kitchen and announces, Mama, I can spell my name. Go for it, babe, I told her, having heard this one before. Clear as day comes out M-I-K-A-Y-L-A. I dropped everything I was doing, scooped her up and spun her in circles I was so proud! She has done it multiple time since then and again for Grant when he got home so I know it wasn't just a fluke. Go Kayla go!

After dinner we headed outside for a bit where Noah and Grant built his model plane (Kayla had a rough time finishing dinner so she had to stay inside by herself for awhile) and I started to tackle the weeds in the flower beds. I am most distressed to find that those stupid little pine tree weeds are back with a vengeance again. I am determined to get rid of them this year even if it means me being out there weeding every other day. If anyone knows what they are or how else I can get rid of them, I'm all ears. On a brighter note it looks like I didn't manage to kill off the peony bush or the roses so I'm looking forward to seeing some color from both of them in the next few weeks.

It was announced to me today that tomorrow is Nemo's birthday. Funny, since we last celebrated it in October of 2011... I've promised Nemo dessert of his choosing to celebrate (I'm such a sucker) so we'll see what I have to pull out of thin air by tomorrow night :) It is also Noah's Parent Blessing Day at school which we're looking forward to. And the empenadas return in a new form as well. Until then...