Mothership Meals and Satellite Saucers: Memorial Day Weekend

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

I just had a perfect weekend. We went nowhere. No park, no zoo, no relatives, no parties. We barely left the house.

We had the goal of almost-finishing the chicken coop, and cleaning up the backyard for various upcoming birthday parties and visitors.

Our backyard has some rough spots, including a few construction-junkyard corners, but it is still like an oasis for us. It is lush and beautiful and completely enjoyable to read the Sunday paper under the fig tree or zone out on the stone steps next to the catnip, or to just mess around trimming euonymous bushes or watching the trickster squirrels prowling around.

So to spend three days back there, with baby chicks to bring out for their afternoon sun, plants to move around, and some hard and heavy work to do was really wonderful. There must be a Jonathan Richman song to go with the broad and happy sentiment I have about the perfect three days I just spent hanging with my family, spitting cherry seeds and working on my garden.

Chris did indeed almost finish the coop. This was taken on Sunday, so much more happened after this. The kids were sitting up in the nestbox by tonight with newly shucked corn in their laps but I didn't have my camera nearby, so I leave it to your imagination to picture the cuteness of that. We are slowly morphing into a mid-century Iowan family.

Today my daughter had a friend over, and in between applying scotch-tape to the cracks in our 8-year old kiddie pool and then filling it up with water (which actually worked)...

...and while I was scalding peaches to make a pie...

they made Nutella tarts.

which actually came out great.

Meanwhile, I went on to cap off our weekend with a traditional Memorial Day dinner. I'd had no intention of doing this, but while food shopping on Friday I was seized like a drunken sailor who stepped too close to a congo line. What was I thinking, shopping in the Coop on the Friday before a holiday weekend??? Mindlessly, with no will of my own, I bought red potatoes for potato salad, chicken for barbecuing, corn for shucking, peaches for pie -- visions of blaring Top-40 tunes, a sixer of brewskis and a backyard grill pit obviously churning deeply somewhere in the depths of my mind. What the hell?

But lucky me, I'm subversive. You fools can't make me cook Memorial Day food, just because it's Memorial Day. I might go through the motions, sure. But I'll have the last laugh.

I burned the chicken

and the corn

and the garlic bread

did you catch just HOW burnt the bread was?

Don't mess with me, people. I think for myself.

The pie came out great, though. Peach and blueberry. And my apple-pie-loyal son broke his trust with the honeycrisps of the world, and accepted peach pie into his repertoire.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

1 comment:

robina said...: i hope you were there in the morning! i love the coop but tend to stay away on fridays and weekends and any time after about 2 -- haha!; May 31, 2009 at 8:05 AM

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The Mothership Method

(Or, how to sit down for dinner with your family without completely losing your mind)

It would be great if kids AND parents wanted boiled chicken and baby carrots every night for dinner. But, too bad, we picky parents want spicy, exotic, fun foods, and our kids want, well, sorta lame foods.
Here's the solution: break it down. Serve the dish deconstructed, and let everyone put their own dish together at the table. Sort of like tapas, or smorgasbord, or tacos. Or how in some parts of China you get a bowl of rice, and everything else is in the middle of the table and you take what you want for your own little bowl of rice. That way everyone gets to eat what they want, parents don't have to nag their kids, and kids get to feels some ownership over their meals. Plus, kids get exposed to the look and taste of the foods you hope they will one day love. But it's not just tacos. You'll be amazed at what can be served with the Mothership Method.

Ten Tips to Get Through Dinner Without Having A Nervous Breakdown

1. Accept That Kids Are Picky. No need to freak out on your cooking ability, or look at your kids like there is something wrong with them. It's called "neo-phobia", and it's just how they are, especially from ages 3-6.

2. Serve Meals Broken Down. Even grown-up meals like coconut curry or linguine with clams can be served in their elements, making them more appealing to kids. Grown ups can assemble their own jumble of deliciousness at their own plate while kids take on the pared-down elements.

3. Push if it Works, But Don't Nag If It Doesn't. Some kids are okay with being expected to taste everything on their plate. Others aren't. I think it's okay to push kids -- but not if you're turning dinner into a battlefield.

4. Suggest a Smell. Smelling a new food is easier than tasting it, and can sometimes provide a kid with the information needed to take that scary first bite. But don't confine smelling to new foods. Smell favorites, too, and help them develop their sense of smell by making a game out of it.

5. Don't Ask "Do You Like It?" Instead, try, "What does this remind you of?" or, "Would your cousins like this?" or, "Does this taste salty or sweet?". Asking if they like it or not gives kids too much power and ends the conversation. Besides, we don't care if they like it! We just want them to keep tasting it until it is familiar.

6. Don't Get Frustrated. Imagine being in Taiwan, or Nairobi, or Rome for the first time. Would you eat everything on the local menu? New foods are scary and gross. Our kids need time to learn about the foods that we eat.

7. No SubstitutionsThis is family dinner, not a diner. You, in all your wisdom, have provided foods that are healthy and delicious and appropriate for your children. There is something on the table for them to eat. Period.

8. No Snacks Before Dinner. This can be the hardest with our hectic schedules and hungry kids. But children who come to the table hungry are more likely to eat than cause trouble.

9. Put Peer Pressure To Your Advantage. School children are more likely to accept new foods if the alpha girls in their group accept them. Swap healthy food ideas on playdates.

10. Involve Your Kids In Cooking, Shopping, and Gardening. The more experience kids have handling and preparing a variety of foods, the more likely they are to eventually accept the foods. (But don't get upset if they help you make a complicated wonderful meal, and then refuse to eat it.)