08 October 2013

31 days... of dinner chez les Wrightlings... Rice and Sauce {day 8}


When we arrived home Saturday from our flying trip to SE Missouri last Saturday, we found the front "porch" loaded with veggies - tomatoes of all sorts, pumpkins, squash and onions. Even as I type, I've got kids napping and pumpkin roasting in the oven (smells delightful, too!) and am looking for a recipe to try using some of the butternut squash (not one of those things I've often cooked with in the past).


Last night, however, I decided to stick with a staple (made my way and not Madame Safana's way since I could never make it taste like hers... or as yummy I was informed at dinner... in a million years of tries) from our time in Niger: rice and sauce. 


Stew the tomatoes with onions and garlic.



Cut up a pumpkin, remove the center and the seeds (saving the seeds to roast, of course).
Chop it up and throw some of it in the sauce.


I added a can of peas (cause that is the ONLY way I'll eat canned peas), some green pepper  in the fridge (so it wouldn't go bad before we ate it), and let the sauce cook down.


But first I drained off the tomato water from stewing the tomatoes.

I did that for two reasons:
1. We had revival meetings at church last night, I scheduled immunizations for the kids long before I knew there'd be those meetings, and if I used already hot water to cook the rice, we might actually almost make it on time to church.
2. I hate to see stuff go to waste... and think of the vitamins and good stuff in that water after stewing the veggies in it.


The craziness at our kitchen table (we had salad with our meal as well... 
It was the first course while the rice finished cooking... 
finished is debatable since it was still a tiny bit "crunchy" when we ate.

When it is warm enough, we have a back porch where several of the kids will go and eat. But once it gets colder, biggers usually end up standing to eat since we don't have enough chairs or space to fit everyone around the table in our little kitchen.

(That's not a complaint... it actually makes for some pretty amusing dinner times!)

My favorite topics at the table last night? 
  • How not to cry when you get a shot... 
  • Why shots hurt even when they are all done... 
  • Why we need (or don't need) shots...
  • Why they give interesting sparkly bandaids when shots don't really bleed (i.e. toilet paper works just as well)...
  • and saving the best for last - 
Having blood drawn is clearly better (Recognize that as a quote from anywhere? It comes from a frequently quoted movie around our house.) than having a shot because if you are in the States (which we are) you get a stuffed animal, not just a lolly pop and it is all the same poke. 

Unless they can't find your vein - 
which Jonathan described in detail until we stopped him.

TMI while eating.

My kids know more about blood draws than I did at their age.
But then again, I'd never had malaria, either.

Then there was some quote Rebekah said about arms and bat wings - 
you'll have to ask her.

I don't remember because I was wondering how we went from blood draws to bats while eating bright red tomato sauce.


The finished product... Jonathan had to add a little cheese because he vehemently protests tomatoes. 

Methinks he doth protest too much. 
His plate looked pretty clean when he headed out the door to church.

Tim and I arrived with the littles only a few minutes late - and very out of breath!


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