on our table... week 37

another week on our table has passed already... time is flying!

m: dinner with work...

t: pork tender loin, fresh pasta with pesto and chanterelle mushrooms

w: pasta bolognaise, grated cheese on top and simple tomato salad on the side

t: spaghetti bolognaise, grated cheese on top and simple tomato salad on the side

f: moi chupu, inspired by Vigdis' dinner project

s: veggie-squid, canon (meat)-balls, treasure chests and dip leftovers from the B-day party

s: pasta and what was in the fridge... (as we were in a hurry I forgot the camera....)

turning three...

this past weekend we had a pirate birthday party with veggie squid and sausage treasure chests. we also had canon (meat)balls, but they never made it on camera... how I love that sometimes it is just more than okay to go all in on cake decoration. as the party was a pirate party, the cake was a treasure island... it was very well recieved! underneath all the decoration was a simple carrot cake, inspired by this recipe with a lemon and cream cheese frosting. I did make a few changes to the carrot muffins, I reduced the sugar to 150 g (75g muscovado sugar and 75g cane sugar), and finally I made one large cake rather than muffins (be aware that it needs a bit longer baking time in the owen)... the cake turned out perfect, moist and tasty... I really like this combination of cinnamon and muscovado sugar.

on our table....

m: lasagna with tomato and green bean salad on the side (leftovers from the weekend)

t: mashed potatoes and celery with smoked fried bacon and onions on top and pickeled beets on the side

w: dinner was combined with a shopping project, i.e. dinner was ikea meatballs, no photo as I forgot...

t: open sandwiches with fish, here fish cakes and smoked mackerel

f: traditional danish meatballs (frikadeller) with a salad of grated carrots, raisins and roasted, salted pumpkin seeds on the side with a balsamico glace

s: lentil soup with fried fennel and chorizo sausage

s: meatballs in coconut-currysauce with raisins, peanuts and mango-chutney on top

this week has been beyond busy, so we have had quite a few quick and simple dinners. it makes me so happy when we manage to have dinner together even though life is super busy. some tricks we use to manage this, is to cook enough for two days as we did with the lasagna (monday was leftovers from the weekend), cook something simple so we don't need to go shopping as we did on tuesday (mash & bacon), cook for both dinner and the freezer, as we did on saturday, and finally leave the more complicated and/or time-consuming cooking for days with time for this, often this is in the weekends for us.

a busy week in combination with a three-year-old and a baby is a bit of a puzzle... and I really want dinner to be a nice moment we can enjoy together. I truly enjoy to cook, however, these days I've realized that quick and simple cooking often is what works best for us. sometimes this means bread for dinner and sometimes we opt for a simple salad as the side dish. at least at our place timing is very important for the dinner to be a success, if cooking dinner takes too long, we end up with tired children who doesn't eat much, whereas if we have dinner before they are too tired, they eat and have a good time...

ps. take a look at the dinner project over at "jeg er jonathan", this was what got me started....

old classics with a slight twist...

last week we had this old (danish?) classic (with a little twist)... originally it is mashed potatoes with fried bacon and onions on top, and pickeled beets on the side. my little twist is to add celery root to the mash, thus both the mash feels a bit lighter and it also adds another dimension to the taste... simple yet fantastic!

eating dinner....

one of our favorites, lasagna (with lots of veggies and salad on the side)

in the "middag" post over at "jeg er jonathan" Vigdis answers to a question on whether or not they adjust their dinnerplan for children... others replied to the post as well, and based on both their answers and experience from friends of mine with children, it is my impression that many families today prioritise to eat the same dinner... some with modifications and others without. they each find the key to how this works out the best for them... some cook primarily children friendly dishes, or at least dishes they know are accepted, others modify the seasoning or avoid certain ingredients, others again include the children in the desicion and planning of what is for dinner... and I'm sure there are many more ways out there. all with the purpose to eat a nice dinner together and have a good time...

this took me back to when I was a little girl... my parents weren't different from a lot of other parents at the time, we are talking the mid eighties, so it has been a while, but still... having dinner at my house would mean everybody eating together (no exception), eating what was served (i.e. taste and not liking it, wasn't really an option, neither was influencing the desicion on what we were having, unless I was helping cooking), finishing your plate (or at least a reasonable part of what was on there), not leaving the table before everyboy were done (I remember a few exceptions, but they really were the exceptions) and finally an overall focus on table manners... and I wonder how this framework for having dinner has changed...? I, for one, have given this quite a bit of thought*... of course I want our children to have good table manners, but what are good table manners to me (here you have probaly guessed they have changed a bit from the ones I experienced myself, guess I'm going for a bit more hippie happy version)? and what are good table manners today? an example of good table manners in my book is, among others, a child who tastes unknown food and then decides...

*a part of the story is that our oldest son was born with a serious stomach issue, and on top of having gone through a problematic first year, due to this, he is/was at risk of developing a troublesome relationship to foods/eating. fortunately he is now doing fine, crossing our fingers that everything continues this way...