Food

Let's face it, we can't survive without eating. However, many of us fall into picky eater habits. It can start when we're kids if we're already picky eaters but gets worse as we grow up unless we are encouraged to eat a wide variety of foods and experiment.

My family was pretty standard for meals. Then I got engaged/married and learned about a whole new world of foods. Part of that was helped along by working in an International style restaurant/deli/catering business. This was where I learned to love croissants.

So, while raising our family, we decided to try as many foods as we could afford. Finances have often been an issue and we've had to buy the standard foods but we do try to experiment when possible. Part of that now is researching recipes online. Back then, some was looking through cook books and a lot was free form experimentation.

Yesterday, we did a combination. We took ideas from recipes and did a free form experiment. Once major problem we have is the amount of food allergies and intolerances in the family. Not to mention food preferences and dislikes. The girls have the allergies and intolerances while the guys have specific dislikes. So making a meal we all like beyond the standards is difficult.

In this case, the meal was made specifically for the guys. It was done for variety as well as to show them that the girls are willing to put a lot of effort into something they won't have any benefit from. While it would be nice for the guys to reciprocate, they won't even think about it.

So, the meal was put together and set to baking. Now, one of the guys is actually a friend of the family living with us while he attends college. He says he likes all sorts of foods and spices but we've discovered he actually doesn't. No surprise really. Trying to get him to accept that he can tell people he doesn't like specific foods is all right is something we're working on. Trying to get him to think of us all before himself is a bigger challenge but one he needs to learn before he gets his own family.

Anyway, the meal was not one of our better successes. The food was deliberately cooked so that there would still be some crunch to the harder fruit and veg eatables. It was also an unusual (for us) combination of flavors. Mom and Daughter cut up the meat and vegetables and Daughter did up the spices. She tends to like food a bit spicier than the rest of us although she claimed it wasn't spicy.

Overall reaction - Dad ate two servings and declared it all right. Not the best ever done, a bit spicy, and the combination was weird but fair. Border said it was too spicy and wasn't cooked through. He also thought there were potatoes in it and there weren't any. It was just another example of how he doesn't know food as well as he thinks he does.

So, that recipe was a bust and we won't be trying it again. Today we'll do a standard meat and potatoes meal, got steaks thawing. Tomorrow we're planning on a baked center cut ham steak with pineapple slices. Just need to figure out the side dishes to go with it. Later this upcoming week we're planning on a Chinese meal.

I admit the Chinese food from the restaurant is better than our home version but our home version isn't that bad. Just need to find a better sauce for the beef broccoli and cook it a bit longer so the broccoli is softer. But I have to say that Daughter makes a fantastic egg roll filling, much better than the restaurant's egg roll.

There are some foods I haven't tried yet, mostly because I've heard that they are quite spicy. Something I will need to learn to change if I ever get my dream of being able to travel around the world. Although, at this point in my life, I doubt I'll get that dream. I am hoping that this summer I will get a chance to attend the multicultural fair and try some foods. That will probably be the closest I get to trying other foods.

I just wish I could afford to try more foods. There's a whole world of gastronomical pleasures out there and I want to try them. .