Dinner Table Conversations Archives

Do You Eat Dinner as a Family?

Saturday, August 27th, 2011 at 4:09 pm  
Leave your comment

I grew up on a dairy farm in Sennett NY. We always sat down at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner together as a family. I’ve always done that with my kids. My husband and I got together when the kids were still little. We’ve always sat down to dinner as a family and talked.

I guess I took that for granted as just something we did until recently. I got coupons in the mail from Barilla Pasta. It came with something called a Talk A Bowl. It has all kinds of questions you can ask as conversation starters. My kids (19 & 20) loved it. They wanted me to print out more questions so we weren’t constantly answering the same ones. Things like “If you could vacation anywhere in your state, where would you go?” and “What is your favorite food?” and “What is your favorite memory”, etc… Michael will get the bowl out every time we eat dinner and he loves to introduce the Talk a Bowl to his friends.

I miss sitting down with my kids. The past few months, Katie (Kat as she likes to be called now) has been gone way more than home and Mike is gone doing his own thing a lot as well. Maybe I’m experiencing the beginning of “empty nest” syndrome? I’m not sure, but I do know I miss our family meals and talks.

If you don’t sit down and eat dinner as a family now, consider changing that. It’s great for the kids and parents to communicate and if you aren’t sure what to talk to them about…print out a bunch of questions…throw them in a bowl and take turns drawing one out and asking it to the rest of the family.

WARNING…this is addicting!!

.

Betty Crocker Boxed Potatoes

Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 3:06 pm  
Leave your comment

I HATE instant potatoes.  No matter how they claim they taste like real, I’ve never found any that did.

Yesterday I got a box in the mail.  Inside were two boxes of Betty Crocker Mashed Potatoes.   One was Homestyle Creamy Butter flavor and one was Roasted Garlic.  Last night we decided to try the Homestyle Creamy Butter with our roasted turkey breast and gravy.  My husband doesn’t even like to attempt to eat potatoes that come out of a box.  He’s a real potato kind of guy.  I warned him ahead of time that we are trying out these new boxed potatoes for the PSSST program and I needed him to try them so I could get everyone’s opinion.  He was not happy with the idea of having to try them, but since I asked him to, he did.

EVERYONE loved them!!  I will caution you, however, that they taste great hot.  Do not attempt to eat them cold.  They get very sticky and starchy.  But…serve them hot either plain or with gravy and they are awesome.  A great alternative for when I don’t have time to boil and mash potatoes for dinner. One box (two pouches) made enough for 5 people for dinner. Great deal!!

Here is what the makers have to say about them:


Tastes As Good As Homemade!

  • Betty Crocker mashed potatoes are made with 100% real potatoes.
  • Homestyle Creamy Butter mashed potatoes are based on a scratch
    recipe – that’s why they taste so much like homemade!
  • With two pouches in every box, Betty Crocker mashed potatoes
    offer a better value than other leading brands.
  • These delicious mashed potatoes go from stovetop to table in just
    8 minutes!

I have not been compensated for this review other than two boxes of free potatoes and some 55cent off coupons. ;-)

Dinner Table Conversations 8/10/10

Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 9:17 am  
Leave your comment

Too many families these days are too busy to sit down for a meal together. They eat and run or eat on the run. I have to tell you – if at all possible, make the time to sit together over a meal and chat at least once or twice per week. In our house, anyone who is present at dinner time, sits at the table and eats & chats with us. Not all of our dinner table conversations are “blog post worthy”, however, I will try to recapture some of those here on my blog in a “Dinner Table Conversations” category.

Dinner Table Conversations 8/10/10

Present: Clayton (husband), myself, Kate (daughter) & Anthony (daughter’s boyfriend)

We were talking about actors/actresses and where they got their start. I asked Kate & Anthony if they knew where Adam Sandler made is TV debut. Anthony knew that it was as Theo’s friend on the Cosby Show.

Kate then asked if we knew Robin Williams was on “Happy Days” and my husband exclaimed “Mork”. Then Kate and Anthony looked at me like I was out of my mind when I exclaimed “Mork & Mindy!” Of course I then had to do the “Mork calling Orson…come in Orson” imitation. My husband and I did the na-nu-na-nu handshake and then shouted “shazbot!”

I told them about the cats we had when I was little named Mork & Mindy. I loved that show. It ran from 1978 until 2 days after my 15th birthday in 1982.

For those of you who don’t know about Mork & Mindy, Mork first appeared in Happy Days as Richie’s martian friend. Then Mork & Mindy spun off as a new sitcom. Mork was sent to Earth to study life here and Mindy befriended him, moving him into her attic. At the end of each episode, he would call home to Ork and summon Orson by standing and calling “Mork calling Orson…come in Orson”. Each week Mork would report back to Orson about what he learned. Things like “Earthlings drink liquids with their mouths, not their finger” and “They sit on their butts, not their heads”.

In the fourth and final season, Mork & Mindy got married. Mork gave birth (laid an egg) to an adult baby (played by Johnathan Winters) named Mearth. Mearth was born an adult because Orkans age backward.

The kids laughed and laughed during dinner. At times they thought we were crazy, but for the most part, we all had a blast talking about old TV shows. Make time to sit and talk with your family!!