Yes, Dear. They're delicious.

 

These biscuits are proof that the less time you spend cooking, the more difficult Bisquick biscuits are to make.

I have begun doing the lion's share of cooking since children have entered our lives. No names here, but let's just say that cooking skills can get rusty if they're not often practiced (especially in conditions where you are constantly being distracted). It was really funny watching the kids trying to eat these since they're typically a favorite. They each ate 3 or 4 bites, didn't say anything, choosing to leave them "for later."

I have no memory of this blob.

In a hasty pre-holiday fridge clean out, I discovered a container with a white blob inside. I approached with some hesitation, as one does with items recovered from the forgotten depths of one's fridge.

It was odorless, colorless, and just the tiniest bit wiggly. The texture was quite smooth.

I asked my husband if he had any clue what it might be. He had no memory of it either. I scooped it into the trash, with the smallest bit of curiosity over what it might taste like.

A mystery best left to 2011, I think.

Bad dinner guests

Never bring your child to someone's house for Thanksgiving dinner when they were sick earlier in the day, no matter how healthy and recovered they look.

You might end up being really really bad dinner guests.

If I do this a THIRD time, send help.

I hate these crackers. No one in my house likes these crackers. So why have I bought them twice now, only to have them go almost completely uneaten?

I must be attracted to the colorful package and exploding cracker. A weird image by all accounts, but I do appreciate that it's not a tarted up image of cheap crackers staged on a shimmering serving platter near a casually laid cloth napkin.

Or maybe it's my desire to actually be eating some "Vermont White Cheddar" as the package flavor tells you you'll taste inside. What I really want is the cheese, and believe me, the crackers do not deliver.

I guess the point of all this is...
does anyone want a box of crackers?

One reason I should at least consider getting a dog

It's usually pretty apparent if you've swept the floor after dinner in our house or not.

little helpers

We usually have the kids clear their own dishes from the table. We're still refining the outcome, but it was a nice attempt to take the additional step of loading the dishwasher. Kind of.

Ewww

Just finished cleaning out the fridge. It was apparently a long winter.

Quinoa update

Not so tasty. Like hominy grits with a hint of canned spinach. Digestible, but not desirable. Hm. Maybe an acquired taste?

How to Eat Fried Worms and Other Non-Foods

What my toddler ate willingly today:
- a glass of chocolate milk
- the marshmallows out of "marshmallow cereal" (a rare treat)
- the top off a piece of garlic bread
- a sample of cinnamon bread and almond milk from Target
- yogurt & raw oats
- sand off a shovel—lots
- a worm (stopped in time)
- mud

What he did not eat that was also offered:
- cheese
- spaghetti/noodles
- meatball
- spinach greens
- banana

Variety is the spice of life, no? I can't say I was willing to try the worm. Maybe that's how he views spaghetti right now. Hard to say. Just keeping the daily multivitamins coming.

Food Product

We have a huge box of Velveeta cheese-product in our fridge right now. The last time I saw this in a fridge in a house I was living in was approximately 28 years ago.

It was suggested as part of a macaroni dish I made last week, and I must have put it in and out of my grocery cart three times before committing. I started to read the ingredients list but stopped myself.

In the days since buying this mysterious food-product I've enjoyed experimenting with it. Does it taste good straight out of the box? No. Does it cut well? No. But it is bouncy, which is sorta fun. Does it "melt better than cheddar"? Yes. And it makes a decent mix with other cheeses in a grilled cheese sandwich. It acts like Elmer's School Glue to hold everything together, which is rather nice. And it is pretty quaint. Like the green cans of parmesan cheese-dust I grew up on.

Food snob? Nutritional guru? I don't qualify. I have pudding cups in my cupboard and really like frosted shredded wheat and Ovaltine. We've recently rediscovered butter & cinn & sugar sandwiches from my youth -- finally a sandwich the kids and I all rather like! But the Velveeta will probably not be making a repeat appearance anytime soon. Even if it is nice and bouncy.

Love/Hate

I don't have much luck getting my kids to eat soup. For my part, I've been enjoying trying these fun little alphabet letters in soups periodically this winter. They're so fine that they don't even require cooking time. You just put them into hot soup and they're done. Love.

At lunch today, I put together a "chicken alphabet soup" from rotisserie left-overs, some broth, mashed sweet potato and chopped carrots. I went heavy on the letters, thinking it might make it more pasta-like and somehow help interest the kids. My 4-year-old, non-plussed, started slowly eating. My 2-year-old looked at the bowl and with hardly a moment's hesitation threw the bowl against the dining room windows. Alphabet letters streaming down the window pane, plastering the radiator below, and pooling on the floor.

I was furious.

I manage to pick him up fairly calmly to lift him over the mess and tell him, "Time to clean up." He is a food-thrower by nature, so he knows the routine. He grabs a kitchen towel and starts mopping. I start on the windows. We clean for awhile, as I fume. We then spend a futile 2 minutes in time-out together (I hold him on my lap to get him to stay put but at this point, he's bawling. He wants lunch.) We return to the dining room, he asks for a cookie. I said, "No." He says he's hungry. I tell him that throwing your food against the wall is not a good way to indicate hunger. He'll have to wait until afternoon snack time. The next 20 minutes was a bit rough as we prepare to take my daughter to preschool. But somehow, we both move on with the day.

I admit to myself that had I been watching this scene unfold from my neighbor's house, I would have been deeply, deeply amused. Especially when the window-washing started.

Fast-Food Fixation: Cured, for the moment

Bad-food admission: For the past month I've packed more fast-food into my kids than they've had in their entire lives. We visited McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy's, whatever was close at hand at least once if not twice a week for quick snack fixes. Did three times ever happen? I hope not. Rarely a full-on meal, but I'm sure that happened too at least a few times.

This week it fell apart for me. We stopped for some very tasty chicken poppers (KFC--way better than nuggets for my tastes) for an add-on to the foods I had prepared for our morning out. I finished the snack, and felt like I didn't want another bite of fast-food for the foreseeable future. Considering we usually only eat the stuff on road trips or a rare treat (shots at the doctor? how about a McD's playland!), this isn't usually an issue.

The question now is, have I now destroyed their taste for real food? I hope not. Part of my binge was inspired by needing more lunch-time inspiration. The good news is, I think I've found renewed motivation, at least for my own palette.

Any good easy lunch ideas your kids like? Share! My husband just read a story about a McDonald's burger that was found a year later in a pocket, looking oddly similar to when it was purchased. Maybe my kids will age more slowly based on this month's diet. Yikes.

The annoyance of "eww"

We all know it's frustrating to have spent time fixing a meal only to have your kids not eat it. But what about when it's YOU? You make the meal, glad that you've once again managed to work a minor miracle and get a home-cooked meal on the table. Then you taste it. You don't want to eat it, let alone getting the kids to eat it. Then, the leftovers! Tuck them in the back of the fridge until they've been rendered inedible? Feed them to the dog? Head for the disposal right away and substitute cheetos and ice cream? Better luck tomorrow. I'm off to do some dishes.