Well, I did it, I bought some beets. I'm committed now to this whole beet-consumption lark. What to make, what to make...?

A miscalculation

Whoops! I accidentally posted today's recipe yesterday. And I don't have another one! So go reread about the zucchini 'hummus', and come back tomorrow! Tomorrow, the crackers recipe as promised.

Just thinking aloud

(...or whatever the written bloggy equivalent of thinking aloud is.)  One of the things I want to do is introduce Mae to all sorts of things-- especially vegetables-- so she'll hopefully retain some familiarity and fondness for them as she grows.  I have three vegetables I just haven't learned to like: brussels sprouts, beets, and cauliflower. I hereby publicly declare my intention to find preparations of these that I can tolerate enjoy so that I can share them with Mae and not pass along my vegetable biases. If I haven't done that by the end of the year, please come kick me.

Chronic annoyance with "for kids" recipes

I was annoyed by this long before Mae arrived-- I have this old candy cookbook from the 60s that was always chuntering on about how the kids would love the recipe at hand. My thought was always, "Of course they will! It's candy! But what about the adults? Adults like candy, too!".  More recently, I was poking around on Epicurious, exploring their "Cooking For Kids" info and "Recipes for kids" tags.  Don't get me wrong, I love Epicurious*, but get this: Of the recipes featured with pictures in their "Cooking For Kids" group page, fully half of the 24 recipes pictured are for sweets. And if you click on the 'recipes for kids' tag, 9 out of 10 recipes on the first two pages of results are for sweets.  Now, I'm no anti-sweet harridan, and on her future birthdays, Mae will be eating her share of cupcakes or pie, not sardine-and-alfalfa-sprout-on-whole-wheat sandwiches.   I'll note again that it's overdetermined that kids are going to like sweets, and there's nothing wrong with that in moderation (a moderation that I readily confess I myself have never  achieved).  But it's not like they're any better for kids to eat  than for adults.  They may be able to burn the calories off quicker, but they may be worse for children in the long run, if you consider the long-term effects of reinforcing those sorts of eating habits.  *Also gestures in the direction of childhood obesity and diabetes*. 

In the end, I think adults use kids as an excuse to make sweets for themselves. Why not just admit it? And how about featuring recipes for kids that don't teach children to turn primarily to high-calorie foods for reward or comfort?  Or that keep sending the message that these kinds of foods are fine for kids to eat, that they are in fact prototypical "kid food"?

I want my daughter to like sweets, sure. I want her to love pie, ice cream, and our family's Christmas cookies. I also want her to be able to find comfort and indulgence in well-prepared asparagus, a plate of oven-roasted tomatoes. Or to continue to love eating fresh summer peaches and sweet corn every bit as much as she does right now.


* Though not as much as I did when Gourmet magazine was still a going concern.

A side note on 'adventurous' recipes for babies

I promised 'adventurous' recipes, and while most of this first week's recipes have been tasty, they may not be what you'd call 'adventurous' (with the possible exception of the pumpkin soup). I assure you I'm working on that! Of course, 'adventurous' is a matter of perspective-- for some people, I suppose whole wheat pancakes are fairly adventurous when given to a 6 month old (no offense if you're one of those, dear reader! It's just that it's not exactly in the same league as Thai curry, flavor-wise). But anyway, these first recipes are my so-far standbys, which only underlines why I need to declare my intentions about 'adventurousness'. You find a few things that work reliably well, and next thing you know, the kid's having the same thing for breakfast every day, and you've missed your opportunity to introduce them to a real variety of foods.

Also in adventure news: we officially have crawling today. We're in trouble now!