On schedule so far!

So, today I made 3 things for our Friday dinner.  Chocolate Tuilles, pictured here (one component of the dessert) although I actually only baked 4 for practice.  I actually froze the dough, and will bake the cookies Thursday or Friday

Roasted yellow & red bell peppers, one part of the cheese course,

 and I started the eggplant caviar, which has no caviar in it at all, just eggplant and some seasoning.  Here it is after it has sweated for a couple of hours, right before I roast it....

 and here it is again, after I've scooped out the roasted flesh and am now draining it in the fridge. I'll finish it up either late tonight, or sometime tomorrow.

Not a heavy work day, but there are only so many things you can make this far in advance and every little thing helps.  So I'm going to tell you a story about the chili we're having for dinner, just to make life interesting.

We are officially homeschooling Kindergarten this year.  I have sort of made up our curriculum pulling from all sorts of different things - probably not something I'll repeat for future grades, but since it's only K.  and we're only doing formal schooling 3 days a week, it works.  Anyway, for our "history" we are studying different cultures.  I have this book that was a gift from someone, actually, that describes the lives of children all over the globe.  We do one continent at a time, and one kid a week.  Depending on the country we try to do a craft or read a book or watch a documentary or something related to this kid.  Sometimes, I try to cook a dish that the kid would eat.  Initially, I'll admit, this was self-serving.  I cook dinner 4-5 nights a  week.  If you have children, you may not be surprised to know that 4-5 nights a week, my kids complain about dinner before it ever hits their tongues.  Sometimes it never even hits their tongues.  Now, I don't make gross stuff.  But I also don't make "kid" stuff (except when I make mac n' cheese as a side item, which I try to do once a month but no more than that, because Ansley would eat her weight in it if I allowed it; she has been known to request it for breakfast.).  I try to make at least one thing that I am pretty confident that they'll eat, but we eat a good variety of foods.  The first time I ever heard a "thank you" was about a year or maybe 2 ago, and the first time that I ever served hot dogs for dinner.  The kids had eaten them before, but maybe just a couple of times and it was at a cookout or something.  I'm pretty sure I had never made them.  Colin, then probably 4 thanked me profusely for the "best dinner that I had ever made."  The only other time I've had a reaction like that was when we had cheese fondue dinner followed by chocolate fondue dessert (he actually hugged me after that one!).  

Anyway, so back to self-serving.  I wanted them to appreciate the food that was put in front of them every night, so we started with Africa, and not just any country in Africa, but Tanzania.  Those kids eat corn mush for dinner.  I figured if I put some corn mush in front of them, they might start eating the other stuff I make. I'll have to admit, it wasn't good.  I actually made polenta, but I tried to make it a little authentic, and it was kinda gross.  When we studied Morocco, I made lamb.  Colin got a stomach bug about a week later and tried to blame it on the lamb. So, lots of complaining still happening.  Then we did South America.  We just plain skipped North America because that's too familiar and there's no ethnic food in Antarctica, so we have made it around to Europe.  They think they've died and gone to heaven.  We did Hungary last week, and the girl we read about gets chocolate chip crepes.  Which brings me to tonight - we had chili - made with venison.  It was the closest thing to reindeer meat (which our friend from Finland eats) that I could muster. But I haven't told anyone that it was deer yet.  I honestly forgot until everyone had started eating.  Then I thought if I bring it up now, no one will finish their dinner, and Colin was already halfway through his.  Then the babies finished eating their leftover beet ice cream that I am determined not to waste, and it was bath time and then bedtime, and now, here I am, typing, and no one knows yet about the deer.  The End.