With the school year starting up again and our schedules getting busier, I thought we’d take another stab at trying to do a semi-regular Sunday dinner, where the kids help cook a nice meal, we set the table with cloth napkins and candles, and we eat together and chat…
…rather than what we do most of the time, which is scrambling and eating what’s easy and definitely not all together — we’ve never been an every-night-family-dinner kind of family. (Kevin and I both work at home most of the time, so we get a lot of time with the kids regardless, so it’s never felt like a priority for us to sit down together every night. If we both worked 9-5 jobs outside the home, I suspect we’d do things differently.)
It was lovely, though I admit, all the cooking did make me a bit tired, with everything else that I have in prep for today’s semester start. The cooked fillings can be prepped a day ahead, if needed, so maybe that would’ve been smart, if I’d thought of it. Oh well!
We did a crepe bar, which was one of my standard party tricks for brunches before we had kids, usually with exactly these fillings on offer:
– creamy chicken (sauteéd in onions)
– creamy mushrooms (goes wonderfully with the chicken, for thems that like mushrooms, which is currently me)
– Swiss cheese (goes with both of the above, and we discovered yesterday that both the kids really like Swiss cheese, yay, so we’ll be adding it to the regular fridge options — nice to see them expanding beyond cheddar, as lovely as cheddar is)
– spinach (sauteéd in onions) with feta (this was just me and Kev, so there’s a fair bit left over, but that’s great, it’ll make excellent omelettes for us for the next few days
– bananas & strawberries & Nutella
– lemon & sugar
So delicious — I think we each had at least four filled crepes. Good thing the crepes aren’t that big; I was stuffed by the end of the meal. We didn’t bother with dessert, given the fruit and sweet options, and I think that was the right choice — Kavi and Kevin both ended up with some strawberries and sugar to nibble at the end.
Now, most of us went for fairly standard combinations, but Anand really likes to experiment — so he tried various things, including chicken + banana + sugar!
Which at first, I admit, the rest of us were a little weirded out by, but when you think about it, it’s not SO different from something like a Jamaican chicken with fried plantains dish, right? I wasn’t brave enough to try a bite myself, though. 
This was Kavi’s week to pick, so Anand is going next week — he’s requested shepherd’s pie. Kavi’s not a big shepherd’s pie fan, but she’s willing to eat it, and we’re going to pair it with a Caesar salad, which she loves, so that should work. I was thinking about what other Irish appetizers or desserts we might want to include; opinions welcome!