Sometimes it's all just a matter of different words

When I came up with this title, I had been thinking about a food experience I had with my grandsons during this past weekend. Since we were exhausting ourselves over the fair and parade, I was wanting an easy light supper before we went back to the fair on Saturday evening. When the boys asked for something to eat, I suggested Mexican Casserole, thinking the boys liked Mexican food because I specifically remembered eating at a couple of different Mexican restaurants with their parents and them. Both boys said, "No, I don't like Mexican food." I had to quickly choose something else and ended up with one of those perennial kid favorites, the can of Chicken and Noodle soup.  Although maybe not the healthiest of choices, they did eat 2 or 3 bowls each and I ended up having to open a 2nd can.  When I had talked to my mother after the parade, I told her I had a batch of leftover Mexican casserole I could bring for lunch the next day at her house.

I was wondering how I was going to get the boys to eat something they had already turned down once before. I decided to fall back on my sister Patricia's strategies I saw her use more than 20 years ago when her children were little. We were at my mother's and she was serving beef tongue. Yes, I know, that's a weird dish and maybe you don't like it either, but our family grew up on it and we consider it a long time family favorite. Patricia called her kids to the table and sat them down with the sliced tongue, along with the vegetables we were having. They asked what we were having, she said "meat". They began eating and after a bit asked again, "what kind of meat"? She looked at me and said, "it's beef, doesn't it taste good"? They agreed that it did and finished their meal without asking again.

We went to my mother's on Sunday after church. I whispered to my mother and my husband that we had to call our main dish "meat casserole" because the boys had told me they didn't like Mexican food. There were a couple of other things the boys said they didn't like either that we were having that day, but we told them they needed to at least try a bite. Each boy ended up loving the Mexican casserole, oops, Meat casserole, and ate 2 or 3 servings each. Plus, they ate some of the other stuff they said they didn't like.

So, the next time you are serving something you think the children may turn up their noses over, just be creative and try to think of another way to describe it and maybe this will work for you too.

Let's Go To The Fair

The quintessential Fort Cobb Fair institution, the Flying Jenny!

Fort Cobb Fair Concession Stand

My grandsons came for a visit last weekend. It was one of those monumental weekends that we did a lot and the boys probably went home worn out and ready for an early bedtime on Sunday night. I know for a fact they fell asleep in the car on the way to meeting their mom. It was the weekend of our local fair and the boys absolutely LOVE the fair, with good reason. Us locals happen to believe it's the best little fair in the world. It's one of those old fashioned home town fairs that a lot of places have done away with them, but the fair is alive and well in Fort Cobb, OK.  It's always held the weekend following Labor Day. So, ya'll come join us next September.

The basketball toss

The fair is actually 3 nights, but since the boys live an hour away, they have to miss the Thursday night of the fair because it would just be too hard on them and us to get them back for school on Friday morning. We still have booths manned by volunteers from the school, local businesses, the bank, and other people throughout the community. Plus, we own our own rides, which are quite reasonable to ride. Most of the rides are 2 tickets, a ticket is 50 cents. It's a good buy in this crazy economic environment we live in now.

Flying Jenny resting

Unfortunately, I failed to get pictures of the food and craft exhibits. Partly because I had a couple of other projects going on that interfered with my entering anything at the fair this time around and partly because the boys were so exited about the rides and games I forgot to walk over to the barn where they were exhibited.

Usually, I would just take pictures of my grand-kids at the fair. But, this year I took a wider variety of pictures because of a Facebook request for a group I'm a member of. And then I thought, what they hey, I need to use those pictures here too.

The Scat

I hope my pictures have given you some idea of what a small town fair is like.

Full Moon Over The Bingo Stand

Either my computer connection is tired and needs to rest from all this picture uploading  or blogger doesn't want us to enter more pictures than this at one time. Anyway, I can no longer get the picture upload function to cooperate. I think a lot of people would agree that this is a pretty good fair for a town of about 700 people. When my own children were little, I always dreaded having to drive by the fairgrounds after the fair was over for the year. They would be reminded of how much fun they had, it seemed like for months afterward they would always ask, "when is the fair coming back". Of course, being little and without a concept of time, they had a hard time understanding how long it would be.  The next step for me will be to try to attend the Oklahoma State Fair, which has started. At this point of my life, I just enjoy walking around the Crafts entries displays, which are pretty incredible, and getting something to eat that you can't eat anywhere else. I don't go to the midway, I don't go see any animals, I don't go to anything but the crafts. That can take a long time. Plus, sometimes I will go to the Made In Oklahoma building...if I have time. I think everyone should go to a fair. It's one of the old time cultures that we are keeping alive for the future.