What we had for dinner

Usually dinners are not picture-worthy (major holidays excepted). Tonight was picture-worthy, but I forgot to take a picture until we had already started the salad course!

Tonight we had raclette for dinner. We had planned to have friends over for a raclette meal several weeks ago, but they couldn't come because of the brush fires in the area...so we had all this cheese left over, and no time to have another dinner party before the cheese is past its prime. Why not tonight!

We purchased a raclette grill bk (before kids) and have only used it a couple of times. We need to use it at least once a winter to make the storage space worthwhile! Ditto with the fondue pot, although I find fondue to be less of a production than raclette.

The picture shows the raclette cooker in the middle: we put slices of raclette cheese on the pans and grill them until they're bubbly, then slide the cheese on top of mini boiled potatoes and sprinkle with freshly ground nutmeg. We had several condiments of olives, pickles and artichoke hearts, and sausage and green beans to round out the meal.

I had chopped up food from last night's meal to serve Konrad tonight, but once I gave him a bite of raclette, he didn't want leftovers any more. Here he is, quite satisfied from the meal (the knot on his head came today when he fell off the deck...I was talking to a repair man and instead of happily playing on the slide where I left him, Konrad pushed the gate away and fell down the step...the knot actually looks much worse than this picture. Praise God he's ok!) The second picture doesn't show the knot, but shows how happy he is to be eating now!

The interesting thing about tonight's meal was that Lukas actually ate two potatoes! Usually he whines about having to eat the two bites that we require of everything on his plate, but he got into the excitement of raclette and happily ate two potatoes with raclette on top, and might have eaten more if he hadn't been slow and there had been any left. That is a new record! Natalie, on the other hand, loves cheese and loves potatoes, so if you put the two together, is in heaven.