Food and things.

From the moment my kids showed a tentative interest in food (circa four months old), I've relished introducing them to different flavours and textures. Guiding them to become food appreciaters has been a true pleasure. Recently, though, we had dinner with a couple of our friends who have a daughter smack bang in the middle of my two kids. Like me, our friend loves food and has helped her daughter become a true gourmet (she counts tabbouleh and home made beetroot dip amongst her favourite things). However, unlike my unruly duo, this little one has just about the most impressive table manners I've ever seen. She knows the rules. She has to try everything on her plate, even if she doesn't eat it all. She has to ask before she leaves the table. She uses cutlery. She sips her water quietly. And after her meal, she goes straight to the bathroom to wash her dear little digits. I realised with abject horror as my two held their own slimy fingers perilously close to the immaculate white suede dining chairs, that I had dropped the ball somewhat when it came to dining etiquette. I had the best intentions. Truly, I did. I loved and lived by Pamela Druckermann's French Children Don't Throw Food, but somewhere along the way, the necessities of life meant I couldn't quite follow through. Meal time is when they're held still and captive, and (because our house is tiny and I could hear choking noises from any room) I use their restful states to zip around and do chores (laundry, that never-ending mountain of clothing). But not sitting with them, or at least being there and overseeing their meals, has meant they are slightly, well, aherm, savage. 

And so, it begins. Retraining my beautiful little messes. 

I might be painting a bleaker picture than is strictly true. We have many other little friends who seem to partake in meals in the same slap-happy and totally absorbing way that my kids think essential. It is an holisitic experience! 

Nonetheless, tonight I started to try to reprogramme them. Just a little. A little tweak towards juvenile civility. I started off with a shared cheese course (thank you, Pamela Druckermann, for making me appreciate that even toddlers can diferrentiate between their brie and blues). An organic apple sliced thinly with some dried locally grown and dried dates and an organic blue was the start to their dinner.

 

For mains, they shared a tasmanian salmon fillet (farmed, but antibiotic free) with organic vegetables. Part of this process was teaching them to squeeze a wedge of lemon over their seafood. This dinner will be blogged in more detail later. It's one of my after-work meal solutions. Eleven minutes from frozen and always a hit with every kid I've ever made it for.

For dessert, a local greek style yoghurt with these delicious apricots (from a cousin's back garden) I preserved before Christmas. And by preserved, I mean slow baked with raw caster sugar, brandy and vanilla beans until they were sticky and sweet. I chopped them into small pieces tonight and stirred through the yoghurt. Shockingly, my little mister did not like "the orange stuff" but little miss one ate with absolute gusto - all three courses. How she is such a tiny thing is beyond me!!