To Dine is to Discuss (And Devour)

The following post was sponsored by Blue Apron. Thanks, Blue Apron!

One of the reasons I do my best to, at the very least, sit with my kids during dinner is because there really is no other time to TALK as a family about all the things. So for today's Blue Apron post, I thought we'd take the emphasis off the cooking and put it more on the eating... and the talking and the enjoying delicious home-cooked food as a family. Because that is why I am such a fan of this service. It twists my arm until I say MERCY MERCY MERCY, and thirty minutes later, dinner is served for EVERYONE and I have just learned how to make a bechemel sauce which I did not know how to do until last week's pizza recipe called for one...

Last year, when the kids went back to school, we instated a casual "around the table in 80 says," which was basically, a way to get us thinking and talking about different issues and ideas as a family. It started with talk of favorite moment(s) of the day (as well as least favorite moments of the day) and evolved into more intricate questions, for example, "Would you Rather: Dinner Edition."

For those who are not familiar with Would You Rather: Dinner Edition, here are a few questions that went down at last night's dinner: 

Q: Would you rather eat broccoli and chocolate sauce OR chicken dipped in whipped cream. 

(Broccoli and chocolate sauce for me. Hands down.) 

Q: Would you rather eat broccoli and chocolate sauce (this one comes up A LOT) OR spinach and mayonnaise with sprinkles on top?

(Again. I had to go with broccoli and chocolate sauce with this one. The mayonnaise and sprinkle thing was... yeah.)

Anyway. You get the picture...

We used to do something similar when we were kids. And then, at sleepovers we would all take turns making concoctions to Boston-Baked-Beans + Sauerkraut + milk + chocolate syrup + granola + ketchup = I'LL PAY YOU TEN DOLLARS IF YOU DRINK THIS WHOLE GLASS OF GROSSNESS.

Between that and getting your underwear frozen, sleepovers were total hell. And yet, I went. Again and again...

I digress. I have always been one for questions. I think we owe it to our children and ourselves to come up with original questions for our kids that do not lean on "favorites," which IS HARD because we can't help it, you know? We cannot help but ask about favorite colors and favorite subjects and favorite sports teams and favorite bands... We cannot help but ask "what was your favorite thing you did today?"

(I am way guilty of this, myself.)

And yet, I also think WE CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER!

Anyway. 

Here are some questions we brought to the table last week. 

1. If you could nominate someone you know for president, who would it be and why?

2. If you could wear anything to school, what would you wear?

3. Where do you think you're going to be in ten years? Ten days? Ten minutes? Ten seconds?

4. What is something beautiful you saw today?

5. If you could name the meal in front of you, what would you name it and why?

6. What is the last dream you can remember? (And what do you hope to dream about tonight?)

And then there were Sunday night's DIY knock knock jokes (which eventually turned into Knock Knock poop jokes. Not exactly appropriate for dinner conversation so we should probably move on...)

Let us move on! 

The big Blue Apron hit this week was Sweet Potato & Fontina pizza with Apple, Celeriac & Arugula salad. My mom was here on Friday and Fable and my mom took the reigns on this one while I got the house ready for Fable's birthday party.

This was the first pizza we've made with Blue Apron (here are some past Blue Apron posts) and it might be my favorite pizza I have ever in my life consumed. It was also incredibly easy to make for those of you who want to make it at home...

(You can find the complete recipe, here. And trust me, you will want to.)

The salad was perfect. I am a big fan of arugula and and this was fresh and amazing and I had never cooked/salad-ed with celeriac before so this was something new for me (as well as the kids) to try, which ruled. 

P.S. The other recipe this week was Seared Salmon and Campenelle Pasta with Roasted Broccoli and Lemon Herb Butter. (Click here for recipe and instructions.) 

(Everyone loved it.)

(And I ate the broccoli out of everyone's pasta. Topped with chocolate sauce. Just kidding.)

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P.S. I would love to hear about your Around the Table conversations. A few people recently sent me a link to this post, which recently went viral (although I feel like some of these questions are a bit eh. I mean.... the "did you catch anyone picking your nose?" question is pretty tattle-tailesque/mean. Let's not ask our kids to call out others for the sake of having a conversation.) The point is, I think a lot of parents are looking for fun prompts to ask their kids after school/around the dinner table and I'd love to hear what you guys are talking about.

P.P.S. Blue Apron is offering the first 50 sign-ups to receive two free meals on the house. You can redeem your offer by clicking, here. Some of the upcoming meals Blue Apron has in store are:

Mixed Mushroom Tacos (omg)

Roasted Cauliflower Salad (ahjsahja)

Shrimp and Grits 

(my kids' are OBSESSED with shrimp and grits right now so I'm excited to take this recipe for a spin.)

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Thanks again for sponsoring this post, Blue Apron! And for teaching me to cook amazing things. I am grateful for the service you provide to reluctant chefs like me. Amen. 

GGC