Scrumptious Bat Eyeballs

Yesterday I decided to try something new, again. I got out the black-eyed peas and created a new dish for my family that I had when I was little. When I was getting ready to cook them I told Nathan to come and look at what I was going to make. He said, "WHAT ARE THOSE? ! I told him, "They are eyeballs. We are having eyeballs for dinner. Do you want eyeballs for dinner?" "Yeah!"

We sat and watched the eyeballs boil and he and Alex got a real kick out of the beans boiling to the surface and "looking" at she and Nathan.

When Athena and Samantha came home from school, I passed the word along that we were having eyeballs for dinner. When I showed them the eyeballs, Athena was too smart for me. She told me that eyeballs aren't that small and they had to be beans. I said, nope! Eyeballs CAN be that small. These are bat's eyeballs. She still didn't believe me, but had to see for herself. She got a fork, pulled out a bean, and took it to the table to dissect it. After the dissection I couldn't really tell if she was doubting or if she had satisfied her curiosity.

When it came time to finally eat dinner I served up the black-eyed peas (bat eyeballs) over rice and guess who had the hardest time eating it . . . . Athena!


OK, it looked better than this when I first served it up. This is Athena's plate after she pushed it around and around during dinner time.
Here is Samantha working on her eyeballs.

Alexandra was the first one done with her dinner. She really liked it!

After awhile I was really trying to get the kids to eat because they were just sitting there wasting a whole lot of time messing around at the table. I told Athena to just EAT HER FOOD! She said, "Well then quit calling them eyeballs. I can't eat eyeballs. Tell me they are beans. I can eat beans." LOL! So I said, "Fine, then eat your "beans", even though they are eyeballs." Poor Athena. She did finally finish, by the way.

I also made my first batch of cornbread to go with the dinner and it was so good! When I pulled out my cornmeal to make the bread I realized I was about 1/4 cup short of what I needed . . . so it was a perfect chance to try making my own cornmeal! I got out my grinder and made cornmeal for the first time and it turned out to be so much better than the storebought corn meal. The bread turned out really moist - not the dry, falling-apart cornbread that I remember. Now I'll have to make it again. :) The picture doesn't quite do justice to how tasty it was.

Last of all, here is Nathan. He finished his dinner without much complaining, too. I think this is a dinner we will have to try again. Maybe next time I'll call them beans.