April Foolin' Around

The idea of april fools day seems to have come about near the beginning of the 16th century when Pope Gregory XIII ordered that the old Julian calander, which celebrated the new year on April 1st, be replaced with the gregorian calendar that we use today which celebrates the new year on January 1st. Rumor has it that the French adopted the new calendar right away, but peasents in the outlying areas did not get word of this and continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1st and were soon looked upon as "Fools" by the upper class. Once all was settled, they decided to continue the practice as a day of fun and joy and April Fool's Day was born!

For April Fool's Day this year, I made a dinner my family will not soon forget! I made Not Chicken Pot Pies for "Dinner". They were made from small potpie tins filled with green mini m&m's (peas), papaya dices (carrots), yellow starburst pieces (corn), banana dices (potatoes) and dried apple ring pieces (chicken) and covered in butterscotch pudding (gravy). Then covered with *mini, precooked pie shells made to look like pot pie tops. They looked SO realistic I fooled everyone!

By the time I got out "Dessert" they were all pretty suspicious. My oldest guessed right away that my "cake" was not what it seemed. And was he ever right! It was a "beef cake" as my husband called it. I filled 2 8" cake pans with meatloaf and cooked for 30 minutes on 375, drained off the grease, and layered them on top of each other with shredded cheese in the middle. Then I "frosted" my cake with mashed potatoes that I had colored blue. With a large decorator tip and bag full of colored mashed potatoes, I accented the edges with mashed potato shells. It did look very convincing.

But the best part of the whole evening is when my husband decided that he had had enough fun and it was time for a drink. He picked up his glass to try the "fruit juice" that I had served, only to set his cup back down with a groan and a roll of his eyes. He found out the hard way that the "fruit juice" was actually a cup full of jello and he would be pretty hard pressed to get a good drink out of that cup!

It was really a night to remember for the whole family! Happy April Fools Day!