April Fools Day!

This year my oldest 2 kids, who chose to be referred to as Brickman and Fancy, are really into April Fools Day.  They were coming up with all sorts of jokes and silly antics yesterday around the dinner table.  When Brickman came home from school he went inside while stayed outside playing with Baby.  Not long after, I heard him yell that he was bleeding.  He usually makes himself a snack after school, and he prefers fruit, so I thought he might of cut himself slicing an apple.  As I was on my way in to check on him, he came running out with ketchup smeared all over his hand.  I was surprised he chose a fake blood joke because he has the queasiest stomach of anyone in our family and can’t even tolerate blood in movies without gagging.  I’m pretty sure he won’t be following in my footsteps and working in the hospital laboratory!

That was the last of the jokes the kids tried to play on me, unless you count Baby trying to camouflage herself with dinner.  I did get in a pretty good April Fools joke in on the family though!  I served them up ravioli, cake, and dirt for dinner.  I have a tradition of making holiday themed meatloaves (mummy, turkeys, snowman), so I naturally went with a meatloaf for April Fools Day. I made 2 meatloaves in cake pans and then frosted the layered “cake” with mashed potatoes I tinted blue.  If you make this, make sure you spray the cake tins first, a step I forgot and thus struggled to get the meatloaf out of the pans.  Instead of making my normal buttermilk mashed potatoes, I used instant mashed potatoes to get a good consistency.  The blue food coloring really threw everybody off.  My husband even commented that even though we were eating savory food, it seemed like you still tasted sweet, like the visual of the cake really did trick the brain.  I finished off the iced cake with cherry tomatoes and Parmesan cheese as decoration.

The ravioli served as a side were actually potato bread rolled thin and filled with peanut butter and then sealed to look like ravioli.  I served that up with a side of marinara aka strawberry jam and a garnish of white and green sprinkles to mimic fresh herbs and cheese.  These were a huge hit with the kids and were the first thing to disappear.  We finished off the meal with dirt dessert, which was one of my childhood favorite dishes.

The kids really thought I was serving them up cake for dinner and got a kick out of this holiday meatloaf.  I’ll have to come up with some new ideas for next year to trick them again!