Alex consulted Chef Bobo’s Good Food Cookbook: Smart Recipes for Happy Healthy Kids and chose spaghetti with turkey meatballs, which she and Max made, along with fresh shelled green peas, green salad and oatmeal cookies two ways: oatmeal-raisin and oatmeal-chocolate chip. Everything was delicious. The turkey meatball recipe is delicious and straightforward to prepare (although Alex wore goggles to cut the onions:).

After a busy weekend, it was really nice for Max and Ali to make ham and gruyere quiche. Niki and Matias helped out too: assisting with the arugula, tomato, parmesan salad; the pasta and of course with the mixed berries and whipped cream. Thanks kids!

Kids decided to make pork tenderloin (which I have never made) and put it a garlic-thyme rub for 8 hours before searing and cooking it. They also made a caesar salad from scratch (home made croutons and egg yolk in the dressing–NO anchovies allowed). They rounded out the meal with two of their specialities: Max’s mashed potatoes and Al’s sauteed mushrooms. They have already figured out that’s its good to include some tried and perfected dishes with new ones they are trying. No matter what, I’m not complaining!
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Max & Alex couldn’t cook dinner on Sunday, April 5, because we were on vacation in Orlando. Instead they had a buffet dinner with three of their friends (Jonah, Eli and Grant) at Trattoria del Porto. Everyone gave the restaurant a thumbs up….its hard to beat eating outside in warm weather. overlooking a boat-filled bay. The kids especially liked the pasta bar where they could choose the type of pasta, the type of sauce and add-ins. Favorite dishes included pasta with red sauce, prime rib, and of course chocolate fondue.

Only drawback: “it was hard to choose which pasta and which sauce,” says Max, “because there were so many choices.” Also, a bit too much sauce on the pasta!

Alex really loved the way they served the dishes in the buffet.

Max was inspired by the Bisquik box to make strawberry shortcake. (If our family was stranded on a desert island, one of the necessities we would need would be a box of Bisquik…strawberries and whipped cream would be nice too, of course).