My mom loves to tell a story about how I read some sort of princess book when I was young, and promptly decided to emulate her royal concern for whether the milk was fresh. Indeed, the milk at our house had to be super-fresh, or I would refuse to drink it.
At my friends' homes though, a glass of milk was just a glass of milk.
Likewise, my kids don't trust me very much when I produce new meals at home. But if those dinners are at Grandma's? Mmm, eat up! I had to laugh when my older son came home one day declaring a new fondness for chicken nuggets because a classmate had shared some with him. True, it wasn't the cuisine I would have hoped he'd enjoy, but at least he tried something new.
My younger son is pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but he has his skeptical moments as well. While the Cat enjoys vegetables, Splig does not. And because of some food sensitivities the Cat had when he was younger, some of the fruits that otherwise would have been around the house just haven't, so Splig never really got a taste for them.
A few months ago, I joined a CSA, but my sons haven't been as enthusiastic as I had hoped. They haven't really wanted to try the unfamiliar produce, even though they appeared excited about the concept of having it delivered to our home.
But this week was a week of successful food exploration. They had the opportunity to try new things AWAY from home, which is of course the magic ingredient.
On Tuesday evening, we had the pleasure of attending a family-friendly cooking event where Splig suddenly realized that we could cook yummy food together. (Somehow, seeing a big official kitchen and chefs with actual chef hats made it all seem much more enticing than when I putter around our great room.) Now that he trusts those chefs, he's eager to find out what recipes they can provide for us to make at home.
And then on Wednesday, I chaperoned a field trip to an organic farm. The Cat's class enjoyed learning about pesticide-free farming, walking under the shade of fig trees, planting onion to take home, and making their own pizza (which they baked in an outside wood-burning oven.) Throughout the day they sampled food from the farm: tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and fig. They learned some pretty cool facts from a beekeeper - nope, nobody got stung - and gulped up some fresh honey.
I expected the Cat to bow out of the "tasting" part, but he jumped right in with excitement. Now he wants me to buy tomatoes and cucumbers.
Huh.
In fact, he asked me why we "never" have tomatoes around.
Um, every week the CSA box delivers us tons of tomatoes...
I suppose the moral of the story is that we must stage special tasting events away from our home in order for the kids to get excited about food. And yet, simply going to a restaurant doesn't necessarily do it. Hmmmm.
Oh well - at least they ate this week!
Comments (1)
I think this is great. Maybe serve stuff in take away containers and say they are from Grandma???
Posted by Zelda | October 2, 2010 12:24 AM
Posted on October 2, 2010 00:24