It's a very secret ingredient ... except it's not.

I received a VERY unexpected phone call Monday night. I was out watching football practice when my phone rang and it was the mother of Brittany’s best friend, Blake. She had recently spent the night at our house.

What her mother said was nothing short of a miracle.

She said … “Darla, Blake said the dinner she had at your house was one of the best meals she has ever eaten and she wants us to make it tonight so I wanted to see if you could give me the recipe.”

I mean I know Jesus feeding the 5000 was truly amazing, but, you have to admit, this was pretty big too.

Let me assure you … I don’t think anyone has said … “this is the best meal I’ve ever eaten” to me before…. ever.

Yep, I’m pretty for sure positive.

I cracked up because there is no recipe. None, none, none … and it is my kids favorite meal … and apparently Blake’s too.

I told her … I bought a bag of frozen meatballs at the grocery store (she said…you didn’t make them yourself? and for a second I thought I should feel guilty but only for a second). I placed them frozen in a 9 x 13 pyrex and poured barbeque sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s) over the top (again … she asked me if I made the sauce. “Uhm, no.” Do people really make their own? She asked me if I diluted it and again … “no. Should I?”) and cooked the meatballs for however long the package said.

At this point her mom said … “this is my favorite recipe ever”. And I think the word “recipe” is being used very loosely, but it works for me.

Apparently I served the meatballs over rice because Blake said I did. I really don’t remember.

I also made my secret ingredient green beans. The secret ingredient has always been brown sugar. It’s the only way my kids will eat them and it’s all my sisters fault. She introduced them to this delicacy and they have rejected all other green beans since that time. Sisters do stuff like that.

Anyway … while we were eating, a can of root beer accidently spilled on the table and some of it went into the beans. We had all eaten (except for Bill) and I kind of forgot about the root beer.

Bill warmed up a plate later and was eating when all of a sudden he said … “these beans are AWESOME”. And Blake died out laughing because she knew they had root beer in them. And then we broke it to Bill that he was eating root beer green beans. The way he raved about them I thought just maybe we should let the food network know or something. Root beer green beans might just be the next big thing.

You just never know.