31 Days of House To Home

I really pulled out all the stops at the kitchen table this past week.  We made our favourite spicy Italian sausage stew; I tried a new recipe for chicken pot pie; I gathered together the disparate ingredients necessary to pull off the cranberry apple sausage stuffing that we could eat by the pound; I broke the rules of not trying a new dish when you have company and gave Laura Calder's Spinach Gratin a try...it was a glorious, very not-low-fat, completely fantastic week of too much food.

I mentioned before in this series that food is an area that I'm trying to be relaxed about spending money in.  And it naturally progresses, when you serve food to people, that they're going to have opinions about the food you've given them.  My children could eat a large block of cheese but won't touch beans.  Clara would devour as many beets, broccoli florets and pieces of pepperoni I was willing to feed her; Samuel asks for pizza constantly, and likes pasta with tomato sauce, but only touches eggs very gingerly.  David wants hearty food, even in the heat of summer; he's happiest when I set down a steak and kidney pie, homemade biscuits, a roasted chicken with yorkshire pudding and gravy.

I have almost entirely given up on trying to 'stretch' anyone's palate.  I see the value in doing it if the group you were serving consisted of people who would only eat cold cereal and cheetos, but my family (oh happy day!) has enough meals that they can all agree on that I think "Oh, who cares that they won't eat my homemade macaroni and cheese?  Who cares that they don't want peanut butter sandwiches?  What does it really matter that salmon is a battle?"  I've made peace (mostly) with the fact that my family has ideas about what they want to eat.  And preferences can be wonderful, as well; in fact I'm embracing their preferences because I hope that serving favourite foods results in them having happy table memories where they can say in the future "My mother used to make the best bread..."

I want to build their palates, but not at the expense of happiness.