if there's a bare patch on the playground, you'll know the Johnsons are eating well

This morning, my younger son hopped into my bed and flopped his Dragon Slayer's book over to my side. "Mommy! Guess what?!! After you're done reading to me I have something very special for you. You are going to love it. It's a secret!", he said with the mystery of a dramatic 6-year-old... but then it was breakfast time, time to get dressed, time to catch the bus... and off he went.

Then this evening, as I was heating dinner up from our freezer stash {reveling in the fact that all I had to do was turn the oven on}, he excitedly runs to the fridge and whips out a ziploc filled with a piece of copy paper and... what is that?

"I picked you spring onions at school! You can make dinner with them!!"

I looked at this bundle of limp-- um, I'm no expert, but I am pretty sure it was overgrown grass-- he held out to me expectantly.

"They're not as fresh as yesterday because they were in my backpack. But when you were out last night, I put them in the fridge... to keep them fresh." {He holds the green wad up to his nose and inhales deeply... then frowns.} "They do not smell like onions now, but I think if we cook with them we will taste the onion," he says with authority.

First thought: boy, he's cute. Next thought: there's no way I am eating grass he found on the playground.

"Wow. Um, ok, so where did you find these special onions?" {I feel guilty wanting a glass of wine and have to stifle a giggle, picturing him foraging while the other kids are playing tag.}

"At school! They grow by our building! I can pick more for you tomorrow!! If we have some tomatoes, we can make a salad. I thought you would love these onions," he says looking at me expectantly.

And so we did. We made a salad with tomatoes, some fresh mint... and grass from the school playground.

Then, he decided "the salad would be even better if we cooked it!" {And I thought, yes, and the heat will kill whatever's on the grass that the water didn't get.}

While his brother did homework, he proudly seasoned the tomatoes, mint, olive oil and grass onions,

and we sat down to {a special} family dinner.