bambamblog

Helpful O

I made a so-so Chinese tofu-veggie dish tonight (too salty and too sweet, ugh). With O so fixed on plain dishes these days, probably as a result of some of his pickier yet cool friends at school, I knew I had to sell it. "It's CHINESE!" I said. "Did you know there are dishes from around the world, exciting dishes you've never tried, Oliver?" "Like what, mama?" "Like our awesome Chinese tonight, but I also like Indian, Italian, and Lebanese." "I love Lemonade, too, mama, but it's not a food, it's a drink." "No, Lebanese, O. It's all garlicky and lemony." "Yes, mama. It's called Lemonade."

Thank you O. And for eating approximately four bites of my unsuccessful dish.

Move Over Mom

A couple of months ago I wrote of my struggles to provide a school-approved, Oliver-approved, me-approved lunch for the young lad to take to school. Since then there have been highs and lows and things in between. The most successful efforts have involved very, very plain sandwiches on mini-buns. The biggest failures are always the ones into which I invest the most love, sweat, and tears: heavenly pasta salads or hearty soups. It's been an emotional rollercoaster, in short.

Tonight, Oliver declared that he would pack his lunchbag himself. After every couple of items, he would run downstairs and yell at Craig and Georgia: "I am packing my lunch ALL BY MYSELF!". Then he'd come up and scour the fridge for more items, employing me as no more than a wrapper and bagger. He even buttered the bread and placed the ham in the middle of his sandwich.

The contents of Oliver's first-ever do-it-himself lunch:

• 1 ham sandwich
• 1 salmon cake
• 2 olives
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• 1 pear
• 1 candy
• 1 yogurt
• 1 pkg raisins
• 1 snack-thing Goldfish

We all had to peruse the final product a couple of times ("Mom! Dad! It's going to be such a HEALTHY lunch!"), and then it was zipped up and put on a fridge-shelf of Oliver's choosing.

Oh, my little man.

 

Perfect Is the Enemy of ... Edible

Oliver and I are at it again: another night of gourmet baking (okay, maybe our third or fourth ever) and destroying the kitchen. We continue to knock it out of the park on presentation marks alone; tonight’s creation rivalled even our cupcakes in terms of colour and texture. 
 
We found an exciting kid’s food site, Weelicious, and set our sights high—Fruit on the Bottom Tapioca—despite my vague feelings of revulsion about the gummy, fish-egg-evoking stuff. It (see image to left) looked so fresh … and that gleaming white-on-red contrast! The only thing we could imagine improving was the lack of garnish, so we popped out to our handy herb garden out front and picked whatever mint the earwigs hadn’t hit.

The mint, it turned out, was the best thing about it (that’s why you don’t see it in our image below). We tried to swallow but it kinda hurt and we worried a little about ever being able to open our mouths again. We tried to make dada eat two servings but he wouldn’t. Even Baby Sis seemed uninterested. So, we thanked good God above that dada hadn’t yet eaten all the Haagen Daz in the freezer and polished that off.

The way we see it, we don’t want to peak too soon. And no, I don't know what that squiggly orange thing amid the muck-crust is. And yeah, that's our wet laundry hanging on wood chairs. It's clean. Just wet.