The first day we spent in Boston was with my cousin, Lisa and her family.

The Boyce Family on the Old North Bridge in Concord

They were so awesome to us! As they drove us all over the place that day, they informed us, that for a couple hours of the afternoon their children were going to prepare the dinner for all of us. Of course, I was immediately intrigued.

Lisa told me that a couple years previous, her husband had expressed the desire to have company for dinner on Sunday nights. With him traveling often, she responded that if it were going to happen, the kids would need to do the dinner, and he would need to clean up. Like me, Lisa also has 6 kids, and knew she couldn’t run the whole show herself 7 days a week with no break. So they started this tradition of their kids all making the dinner each Sunday.

Their oldest, Zach does the roast . . . every week. He has his own special recipe. After he put in the roast that day, he worked at cracking some acorns the kids had gathered.

They had heard that the acorns could be ground into flour and baked and eaten. They wanted to try it.

Raquel helped peel and mash the acorns . . .

along with Calvin & Jake,

and Nathan too.

Calvin measured the roll ingredients,

and Jake read the recipe and announced the quantities needed.

After our outing to the Old North Bridge and Minuteman museum, the dough was done.

Raquel jumped in on the roll making action.

Rex peeled potatoes to be boiled & mashed. Lisa pulled out spinach and fixings for a delicious salad. I peeled apples with the younger kids to make apple crisp for dessert.

Dinner was lovely.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t use the acorn flour in our dinner. After a brief search on the internet we learned that the acorns must be crushed and dried for at least 2 weeks to get rid of toxic tannins. The kids were disappointed, the adults were relieved.

I asked our kids before we got home if they would be willing to follow and contribute to a dinner-making tradition like this one. This is called the “up front contract.”  It’s best to ask your kids at the moment of inspiration about doing something new, ahead of time. When the inspiration is gone and they’re thinking about other things, it’s less likely to happen.

My kids said yes, but then 2 weeks later they left with Mike to Bolivia for 2 weeks (yes, October was our travel month). Meanwhile, I hope to be consistent with this training over the next 6 months.

So this Sunday I’m starting a new tradition. I’ll get out a roast and crock pot, white wheat flour and bread maker, potatoes, and spinach with salad fixings.

We’ll see if Nathan remembers the secret roast recipe.