While Mom's away the Dad will play...

As many of you already know, Barbara traveled on a mission trip to Amman (the capital city of Jordan).  This is especially cool, as she is following up in ministry with many of the same YWAMers that I worked with years ago on my trip to Jordan.  Unlike construction (the focus years ago), Barbara's trip is focused on prayer ministry.

The key thing everyone needs to realize is that this leaves me alone with the kids for a week.  One of the traditions we established on a past trip Barbara took is to break out the cook book and hand select meals that we would prepare and eat together.

Here's a shot of Stephanie with her completed twice-baked potatoe topping-

Stephanie hand grated the cheese, cut the green onions and (most importantly) hand-dolliped the mayonaise.  I should also add that Stephanie handled all the measurements.

Not to be out done, Jacob handled the marinade and other "surprise" side dish.

Jacob was a measuring and pouring machine.  From the look on his face, he may enjoy cooking more than football.  Not a problem, his Dad enjoys eating more than football...

Here's a shot of the finished product.  The potatoes turned into a joint effort as Jacob handled halving the red potatoes and then Stephanie added twice-baked mixture.  Of course the potatoes went back in the oven for the full twice-baked effect.

 The meal complete, Jacob and Stephanie were not shy about posing.  What was the main dish you ask?  What special, mom's away let's fill the cracks of the heart, dish did we cook up?

Here's a closer look-

 That's right - lamb chops!  This is a special dish as it's the exact recipe we cooked up last time mom was away.  Nothing satisfies like a fluffy white lamb... chop.  We have another little piece to the tradition.  Last year, I had never watched an episode of Man v. Food... last year we ate lamb chops and watched about 5 and a half hours of Man v. Food.  We popped the Netflix disc in the Wii and watched another few episodes of Adam in Man v. Food.

The wine, lamb chops and red potatoes were excellent - Ruth Criss couldn't have done any better.  And the company was EXQUISITE.