Friday Round-up

...to have family dinner: When my kids are 16 and 15 (instead of 8 and 7) and we are dealing with friendship dramas, SATs, sexting episodes, and God only knows what else (Parents of teen-agers: please refrain from telling me what else) dinner will be so firmly established as my family's 6:30 Magnetic North, that my kids' hormone-raging, eye-rolling, parent-resenting bodies will be hardwired to come home, sit down, and talk to me anyway. In other words, I will have them right where I want them.

In other news...Can you believe it's October 29 and I haven't even mentioned Halloween???!!?? In case you're scrambling for party ideas, I found this photo of monster cupcakes on my iPhone taken last year. (Hence the grainy photo quality, sorry!) As usual, I bought the cupcakes, made the kids a model to copy, then had them decorate the rest. The hair and eyeballs are licorice and the mouths are gumdrops, all of which I found in the candy bins at our local Asian produce place. If you are hosting a pre-trick-or-treating gathering, might I suggest the Pot Roast with Hominy and Sweet Potatoes on page 263 of Time for Dinner? There are four other ideas for "self-serve stovetop" entertaining in that section, which is always the vibe I want on Halloween night. Who wants to be messing around with placemats when there are vampire fangs to insert and hair to be spray-painted? Not me. Happy Halloween!