Sunday's Plate

This last Friday when my grandchildren came to my house, I had all the usual junk food waiting. I had pretzels for Jack, cheese puffs for Bill and regular potato chips for Bob. Now you'd think at this grandmother's house I'd have something fabulous and made of whole wheat. If they would eat it, I would, but they usually won't so whats the point?

Having watched a program on the making of junk food, I found out that the egregious little cheese puff is really cornmeal and water and air, and it's covered in real cheese - about the same as powdered milk - powdered cheese, so it's not a bad little treat although they tend to stick to your teeth.

I also had something good on Friday - homemade pizzelle cookies. I made these from whole wheat flour a little sugar, some rum, some ground oranges egg and milk - I think. I made a whole plate of them and thought at the time, "They won't even touch them." I made vanilla frosting and offered them to the kids who ate the whole plate, so I did feel good about grandma's baking, after all.

I also made them a homemade pizza and homemade cannelloni for their father and for us. The boys finished off the pizzelles and dove into the pizza. Then Bill whined that he was "starving" and only gma's granola would fill him up - that or the two pizzelles that I had hidden in the closet for his dad. After consuming both the pizzelles and the granola, he was not quite full and finished off another slice of pizza. The cheese puffs and the chips and most of the pretzels stayed in the bags.

Now these are picky boys and it took months to assure them that what I was serving wasn't going to poison them, grab their tongues, bite them back or taste challenging. These children will not even consider eating most candy, sandwiches, they choke on the idea of mashed potatoes, won't touch a noodle, vegetables are from Mars, and they think that most meat needs to be back on the hoof. But inch by inch, mouthful by mouthful they are getting more adventurous.

One of my methods is just ignoring the whole routine and trying to have something they might like even if it's a saltine cracker. I made a whole batch of granola on Saturday just for Bill. By next week, he may not be eating granola. It's almost a game.

I love the game. It's a matter of getting the formula right: nine parts wallpaper paste and one part sugar. Sometimes it's eight parts wallpaper paste and two parts salt. Depends on the stars.

A picky child will eat if the stars are in the right mix. The food has to look like something that won't offend them - Chinese won't cut it - something that smells good - no smell at all - and something that is small of nature - like cereal. When Jack tried his first pizzelle, he took a tooth full, and when that didn't resemble snakeskin dipped in gasoline, he tried a regular mouth full, and then ate the whole thing. Pizzelles are about the size of a saucer.

Children who are picky are usually the ones who can separate foods correctly into salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Children who are not picky can't. It's an interesting phenomena.

Being patient with kids is hard sometimes, and I've had my share of fits when a child won't eat anything. I usually take a medal if a child won't eat one bite. I always make sure my picky eaters have something on the table they like. When they refuse everything, it's not a healthy choice. I can't and won't force a child to eat, but I can regard that behavior as non- honorable.

Having fun with food is a wonderful part of life. Encouraging kids to eat is the job of the loving adult, and that works when the TV is off and adults actually sit down with kids and eat what they expect the children to eat. We eat with the children at school, and sometimes we have something on our plates that the children don't have simply because we don't think they will eat it. I make a lot of salads with weird dressings that contain raisins and nuts and onions and cheese and anything else I can find. I call the dressing sludge. The kids love it and eat most of it when I sit by them. One way of getting kids to eat something new is to have a plate filled and let them ask what it is and if they can have some. This is the way to build strong appetites and adventurous palates.

Recipe for sludge: (.5) = half

.5 cup olive oil
.5 cup balsamic vinegar

Some:
ketchup
lemon juice
pepper
garlic
mustard
soy sauce
hot sauce

Oh, and try this: .5 pint mayo;4 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon pepper; .5 cup Parmesan cheese.

Snacking wisely should enhance meals not take away from it. If possible, make your snacks. It only takes a few moments. More about snacks next time.