Ingenuity

Last week, I was pondering what to have for dinner and came up with the idea of having Shish-kabob. I used to make it fairly often, but I hadn't made it recently, so I thought that would be a nice spring/summer type of meal. First, I went to Costco and was able to get some of the vegetables for a reasonable price, but to my horror, the sirloin I had been used to buying there for our standard Thai Beef with Garlic and Black Pepper seemed to be almost double what it was previously! SIGH. I was not to be thwarted, however, and remembered seeing an ad for t-bone steak at $4.99/lb. at Food Lion--half the regular price. It meant having to shop at another grocery store, but was definitely worth the savings. That's the only problem with Costco...you can't get all the groceries you need in one shopping trip.

I got all the ingredients together and was informed that there were no skewers in the house. What?! We used to have nice, long, metal skewers with wooden handles. Apparently, the kids found that they also make good swords and the occasional pick tool to get into the bathroom when it was locked with no one in it. SIGH. Off to the store AGAIN! All I could find at the nearest store were the small wooden skewers, but they would have to do. I put the pieces of steak and veggies on them and started to grill. Unfortunately, the grill is in need of some repair as it cooks unevenly; flames come up in some parts, while other parts seem to be off completely, so Katelyn and I were getting some things burned and kept having to move the skewers around. Let me tell you, the wooden skewers are not the reuseable kind--there would be a sudden burst of flames as the wood caught on fire and all that was left was burned charcoal. The skewers were destined for the trash -- or so I thought.

During dinner I looked over at Jacob and Rachel, and they were using the charcoal ends of the skewers to decorate their paper plates! (Washing dishes for ten people every meal can get quite exhausting, so we use paper plates occasionally.) They had just made their own charcoal art pencils! I guess I could count that meal as Home Economics AND Art. LOL

Here is a picture of Rachel's drawings using the skewers: