Monday Meatballs

We are trying a new recipe tonight!  I'll let you know how it goes.  Around my house I constantly hear, "I WANT TO HELP," "I WANT TO HELP!" Read that back in the most whiney voice possible. Repeat 40 times. That would be Noa and Ruthie (sometimes Lyd), letting me know that dinner prep will take 30 minutes longer than normal.  Some days I'm up for the challenge.  Today was one of those days.  I'll let you know how the recipe turns out.  We're having Honey Garlic Meatballs, with rice and zucchini!  Noa and Ruthie were incredible helpers today!

This was the 5th attempt to get them both smiling and looking at me.  Not working.  Separate bowls because everything, of course, has to be fair and equal. 

Ruthie was grossed out by the meat at first, but after a while she went for it.

I'm not sure what was so captivating over my left shoulder, but they just wouldn't look at me! Something interesting about Noa is that she's seen about 5 cooking shows in her life but has really taken it to heart!  When she's cooking with me (or playing chef) she's always pretending she's on a cooking show.  Maybe in a few years she'll take over as the household chef.  I would love that!

Brother was a "helper" too!  Not really. In fact, he is a cranky mess.  Last week Noa had croup (lost her voice for about 5 days, which actually gave my ears a break!), and then Brothie caught it. Side note: don't act like you don't want that pineapple wallpaper all for yourself.  Its like a Magic Eye game all wrapped up in kitchen decor.  

Look at how pathetic he looks!  Poor buddy.

And another.  So sad. But anyway... back to the meatballs.

Here we are!  I'm trying this recipe tonight.  I asked the girls to roll them in 1" balls and, for the most part, they did pretty good.  Towards the end, they just started smashing them into the dish, so I had to take over.  But it was a good 10 minutes before that started happening!

In other news, I made some aprons for the girls (for Christmas) this weekend while Russ was on the Man Retreat.  Sadly, the night that Russ was gone was Caleb's worst night with the croup.  Neither of us slept (like, not for a minute) and for most of the night Caleb was either trying to catch his breath, or screaming.  We spent most of the night in the bathroom with the hot shower running so he could breathe in the steam.  It. Was. Terrible.  Why is this the caption for the aprons?  I will tell you why.  On Saturday, all I wanted to do was sleep, but since that wasn't an option (caring for three girls who slept well and a baby that just wanted to be held), I had to throw myself into a project or else all I would think about was sleeping and then how angry I was that I couldn't sleep.  So, I cranked out these aprons in record time!  Just kept rollin' 'em through the sewing machine and now I have three Christmas presents that didn't cost me anything!

Thankfully, the night before the Man Retreat, Russ and I went out to a new restaurant downtown that we loved!  It is called The Rarebit.  Fabulous ambiance, great prices, and even better food.  Russ had chicken and waffles, I had fish 'n' chips, and we shared a Lentil Salad, which sounds gross but it was great.  I wanted to order it because it was different than something I would usually pick, even though I was really wanting the onion rings.  I've never met an onion ring I didn't immediately eat.  But, now we have to go back so I can try the onion rings.  It was all part of a greater plan.