ABC Dinners - 'C' Night

After the massive success of our 2nd dinner, I really wanted to knock it out of the park for the 3rd.

Unfortunately, instead of focusing on what worked for 'B' night, I decided to push it and challenge the kids.
So brilliant me came up with chowder and cornbread for dinner.

Now, I should back up and explain how much I hate fish. Hate, despise, avoid... I can sometimes eat tuna, sometimes eat gefilte fish, and sometimes tolerate sushi. I've eaten actual salmon 3 times in my life. Mostly, the smell throws me. And if it's at all over-cooked, the taste and texture make me gag.

So, brilliant! Why not make a fish soup!? Yes, yes, so smart - not just a fish soup, but one with an onion base, because there's nothing my daughter hates more than fish, besides onions.

Spectacular planning on the Momma front.

I will point out that the issue is not with the recipe. It's with the audience I chose to serve it to.

http://www.koshereye.com/soups/467-new-england-style-kosher-qclamq-chowder-.html
My local store didn't have halibut, so I picked another white fish that was reasonably not insanely expensive. I see all the qualifiers I used in the sentence, and I meant every one of them.

Cod? I have no clue.

Side note - if I had chopped the onions a lot more finely, there's a distinct possibility that the soup would have been more palatable to child #1. As it was, the onions and potatoes both were cooked, but not as soft as they should have been.

I cut the fish pretty finely, but the textures in the soup DID NOT meld. I admit - I was rushing it a little. Totally my mistake.

And I didn't use generous amounts of white pepper because I was scared of over-seasoning for the kids' palettes.

So, that was a disaster. Of such proportions that I believe I skipped photographing the results. I ate the soup, and it was okay, but as I mentioned, the textures were off because the fish was soft and the potatoes and onions were nowhere near as soft. So I was able to eat it, but didn't exactly rush to get a 2nd bowl. The kids cried during dinner.

I also made some super awesome yummy cheesey cauliflower
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cauliflower-gratin-recipe/index.html
that the kids hated. I couldn't stop eating it.

The saving grace?

CORNBREAD!
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/bakingdesserts/r/cornbread.htm
I have now made this recipe about 40 times since we had our 'C' dinner, and it's been wildly successful each time. And it's so quick, and so easy! We make it in an 8x8 pan or in a muffin pan, and either way, it's gone pretty quickly. I have to consciously hold myself back from over-mixing the wet into the dry - it's really good. If you're looking for a sweeter corn muffin, add some agave to the mix. I haven't yet, but it should give you a lot of sweet for not much more liquid. You could also drizzle honey over the muffins right after you take them out of the oven.

WAIT. It gets better.

The night had gone so badly that I decided a repeat was in order.

I made Cheesey Cauliflower SOUP, thinking it would go over better than the cheesey cauliflower had. I was so wrong!
So
Predictably
Wrong.

But I made cornbread again.

Anyhow, I made this soup:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/wisconsin-cauliflower-cheddar-soup-984

It was awesome. Amazing. SO GOOD. Kids hated it, wouldn't touch it, and had butter on cornbread for dinner.

I decided to move on. You can read about our 'D' adventures soon!