Funny things your children say......

[shroomgirl]

One of my cherubs is coming home for Spring Break from West Point....freshman year. I asked what special meals he would like me to prepare, this was his response.....

Anything you think I’d enjoy (no eggs, no seafood, no strange types of food most the rest of the world has never heard of, and absolutely none of the following vegetables: asparagus, cauliflower, eggplant, heart of palm, brussle sprouts, chickpeas, beans, any type of peas other than green peas, tomatoes, or any other vegetable I think is nasty, weird or a combination of the two.)



And I responded with this
the question is what would you like, nice to know what not to make but.....



sushi

brats (lamb & pork)

Chinese dumplings

chicken alfredo

canned green beans

peas

curry

rice not potatoes

pancakes

ham sandwiches with swiss cheese

grilled cheese

lettuce with mandrian oranges no dressing

chocolate chip cookies

oranges

What about lamb shanks, pot roast, roasted chicken, pizza,.....


He came back with....All of that works except pot roast. Please get some eel. It tastes beautiful in sushi.



Gotta love a picky eater who thinks eel on sushi is normal! I laughed for a couple of days over this exchange......and am smiling a week later as I share with you.

[Ma Facon]

Make one special meal for him and then go about your regularly scheduled meal planning and let the cards fall where they will. You'll both get over it. Have fun.


Have him cook for you.

[shroomgirl]

there are no regularly scheduled meals around here, it'd be him and me.....
George will make sushi, chocolate chip cookies and mac/cheese....

[Ma Facon]

What I meant was: Don't change a thing, Maybe take him food shopping or let him go get what he wants. After all the time you spend with him is more important.

[phoebe]

Originally Posted by shroomgirl

One of my cherubs is coming home for Spring Break from West Point....freshman year. I asked what special meals he would like me to prepare, this was his response.....

Anything you think I’d enjoy (no eggs, no seafood, no strange types of food most the rest of the world has never heard of, and absolutely none of the following vegetables: asparagus, cauliflower, eggplant, heart of palm, brussle sprouts, chickpeas, beans, any type of peas other than green peas, tomatoes, or any other vegetable I think is nasty, weird or a combination of the two.)


.

Oh Shroom!!! I can't believe a child of yours would refuse so much produce! And I take special offence at his tomato-phobia

Is this on a par of liberal parents being blessed with Republican offspring?

[shroomgirl]

Gotta love um! I raised my children at the stove.....this middle guy has from the time he was tiny wanted control over his food intake. He would literally starve than go out of his comfort zone. When George was 16 he worked on an organic farm for several weeks, at that time he "got" the food system.

What I loved about his responses are the fact that he's familiar with hearts of palm, chickpeas, brussel sprouts.....that eel on sushi is not weird nor nasty. I'm still shaking my head and grinning.

Yes I do believe it's the equivalent of a liberal's child becoming conservative. This son is actually at West Point....he wanted it, he earned it and he got into THE hardest school in the nation to get into. Would I have chosen that route for him, no way.....am I proud of him, he-- yes!

[phoebe]

Well, now you've got me curious. What do the other kids eat? (or refuse to eat?)

[shroomgirl]

Will is 23 and a play writing/journalism student at Mizzou....working for a catering business on campus which he swore he'd never ever do....work in the food world. He's into sushi too, loves the crap cereal I refused to buy as they were growing up....choco ball things, ribs, steaks, salad w/ no dressing, will eat most things but doesn't like innerds much nor really strong flavors (no blue cheese, no stinky french stuff) He could exist on jerkys and sausage sticks. I've been told the poor college student stories by his roommates about ramen with BBQ sauce....oh man....there are just somethings a mom does NOT want to know.

James is 17 and has autism, this limited verbal child is a wizard in the kitchen.
By 18 monthes he could get all the ingredients down for Tollhouse cookies....that should give you a sense of how often they were made in my house. When he was 4 years old he would make apple strudel with fillo.....I have no mercy when an adult says it's difficult. When he was 6 my "uneducatable" child had his own set of Heinkles and while I was on the phone watching him made.....cut a bell pepper in half, chopped up an onion, chopped up 1/2 of a pepper, separated 3 eggs into bowls, beat the whites stiff, got out the flour....got out a pan and asked me to turn on the stove, he cooked the onion/pepper in oil, then stuffed it into the half pepper, ran it through flour then the egg white, put oil in the pan and cooked it.....um, I'd not made chili rehenos in a very long time......he made black bean pancakes...this child can rift in the kitchen. He's living with his dad and they do not cook the same way....it's more box shtuff.
James is pretty eclectic....he's the only blue cheese eater in the group. This past summer I had him at the market and he ate 3 omelets, 6 bison sticks, 3 muffins, 2 peaches......the farmers said this 6'+ kid could keep them in business all by himself!!! What a guy.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to know what's too obscure....which is interesting because that's what I deal with day in day out. Guess it's all in who wants to know.

[panini]

shroom,
A West Pointer! That is truley something to be very proud of. You may have not taken that route, but you had to have given him the tools to go and get something like that. Congratulations!
Now for the menu. A trip to the local army and navy store. pick up some stripes. Sew them on the inside of your apron. When appropriate, flip up your apron. If you out rank him you might see a more flexible eater

[shroomgirl]

Funny Pan.....

Last summer on the way here we stopped off at the commisary on Ft. Scott in Illinois, what did he want....MRE's....ok George, whatever....personally I would not eat one unless I had to and was very very hungry and there were no wild edibles around. When I was little my navigator dad would bring home his flight meal....in the 60's it was pretty darn good....fried chicken, fruit, gum, cookies, boiled eggs, all kinds of cool shtuff little kids like poking through. MRE's are definately several notches down on the culinary scale. Maybe it's OK since kids are conditioned to eat neon and brown foods in schools, fast food at home, prepacked/fried crap around town.....MRE's fit right in there. It's a subversive governmental plot to build better soldiers...add the tongue sticking out pinky here!

The first thing he wrote prior to his do not want, was a response to, "George if I don't get a detailed list of what you'd like to eat it'll be liver and onions." There was something said about involuntary gagging and vomiting.....

I learned a long time ago to pick my battles with these boys.....it won't be over food. Being a pleb is not joyful it's equivalent to being in Frat Rush for 12 monthes. This time is replenish the love time.....and what says love better than chocolate chip cookies?

[shroomgirl]

Years ago William was crawling and tipped over a 5gl container of veg oil.....imagine that scenerio.

My mom tells when my younger brother (by 15 monthes) and I were preschoolers I dumped a bag of flour over him...."Look mom, Casper the friendly ghost". I'd pay my bro a penny to eat spiders...that's when a penny could buy candy or gum.


When we moved from CA to Little Rock I ordered peas....expecting green petit pois....black eyeds came out and I looked at them shocked and wondered what land I'd been transplanted to....

Or on a trip to San Francisco when we were in our late teens I got to choose the restaurant.....back then Narsi David was getting an incredible amount of press so we made reservations at his epimonious restaurant. After a verbal resertation on the aps my brother who had grown up going to restaurants asked him to repeat the list. Then he looked the waiter in the eye and said do you have anything other than animal innerds for appetizers? I must have died a million times and kicked the fool out of him under the table. This was a kid that was picky growing up also (now eats all vegetation, still doesn't go for innerds)...he used to order filet mignon well-done, it was so bizarre to see this hockey puck show up on his plate.

[MikeLM]

Shroom'...

One of the nicest threads I've seen lately. Sounds like you have achieved a wonderful family.

Please convey my highest respects to your son the West Pointer.

Mike

[shroomgirl]

thanks so much....they are the joy of my life.

[Botanique]

Shroom, you make me smile. Thank you for sharing your family with us. And eel on sushi is not bizarre, actually. When you come for a visit I will introduce you to some great sushi!

BTW I am married to a conservative republican who is VERY food picky (but his parents aren't liberal LOL). He basically blew a gasket and had a major temper tantrum because I put pinapple on a quarter of the pizza (because I like pinapple on my pizza). BUT, there is hope! He used to REFUSE to eat asparagus -- so I took him to our local winery friends who also have an asparagus patch. I was handed a shirtload of just picked asparagus, Will was handed one, and he took a bite right there and then as instructed and fell in love.

I think many of his food issues are emotionally based though.

I love the stripes on the apron! Will would appreciate that (btw -- he made chief mate, I am very proud. But he still says when it comes down to it, I am the Admiral LOL).

[shroomgirl]

That's always been my modus operundi......the more a person is in charge of picking out, growing, cooking.....etc....the larger their palate becomes.

Our family was anything but normal. It was in constant Triage for numerous years....