And The Winner Is!
When you sit down to dinner, at least in our house, you are almost always guaranteed a good show. Last night was certainly no different, although when I sat down at the table I didn’t realize I was now one of the judges at the A-DAD-A-ME awards.
You see, at our house we experiment often trying to get the kiddies to try new things. Last night’s secret ingredient was spaghetti squash. Now when my oldest, JD, was a wee tot we tried spaghetti squash as pasta with sauce and told him it was yellow spaghetti. The problem was Daddy didn’t care for it so we stopped eating it. Did you know that children aren’t as gullible when they are 12 as they are when they are 3? I didn’t either.
As it turns out, they aren’t as gullible when they are 6, 8, or 10 as they are at 3 either. Yup, you guessed it. I tried to pass it off as yellow spaghetti. This time rather than as a meal I prepared it as a side dish, sautéing it with butter and fresh parmesan cheese. I made the same thing for my wife and I except ours was loaded with all of the veggies kids won’t eat, red bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, scallions and mushrooms. All I’m going to say is, the oven roasted chicken was nothing but bones on a platter. They picked the chicken clean. If it weren’t for the chicken and the healthy portion of salad that is a daily part of the Hot Buns menu, I think that all of my kids would have opted for starvation. While the spaghetti squash came out quite tasty, at least the grown ups enjoyed it, I think that the texture may have been the culprit in what follows.
Back to the star of this show, the spaghetti squash. After much debate about how it didn’t look like pasta, it smells funny, what kind of pasta is yellow?, etc.,etc… the first to actually try it was my daughter. Now this was a great feat in and of itself because for the entire 10 years of her little life we have had to all but force feed her anything new. She wasn’t too bad actually. She did the scrunched up face and downed her three strands of yellow pasta with about 16 ounces of water.
Next came my littlest and most opinionated, my six year old. To watch him in action is a true spectacle to behold. You would think that he is the most aggrieved person in all the land. He just said no and acclaimed that the only reason we make him try new things is because he is the littlest.
Third was JD, my 12 year old. Let me start off with this vision for you: my oldest baby, now 12, is only a scant shorter than his 5’ 10” Dad, and has much bigger feet. Imagine now trying to get someone of near adult size to try something like vegetables. It really is quite a sight to behold. But alas, he picked up his fork and with every ounce of willpower forced himself to put the fork to his lips, open wide, place the fork full of two strands of spaghetti squash and 3 ounces of butter and cheese into his mouth and….gag. Yup that’s right, gag. Just a little gag mind you but a gag none the less. That was the actual beginning of the judging though. Up until now it was amateur night. What came next was truly amazing.
Last but not least was my 8 year old. Now I didn’t expect the show we got here because he usually will try almost anything, almost. The trouble is if he doesn’t want to try it, it usually isn’t pleasant when he does. Last night was no exception. He put the food in his mouth and you would have sworn he just drank syrup of ipecac. Not the reaction you really want to something that took you nearly an hour to make.
And the winner is……….
My 8 year old. There is actually no trophy for this one, but I think I’ll leave spaghetti squash off the menu for a while.
You see, at our house we experiment often trying to get the kiddies to try new things. Last night’s secret ingredient was spaghetti squash. Now when my oldest, JD, was a wee tot we tried spaghetti squash as pasta with sauce and told him it was yellow spaghetti. The problem was Daddy didn’t care for it so we stopped eating it. Did you know that children aren’t as gullible when they are 12 as they are when they are 3? I didn’t either.
As it turns out, they aren’t as gullible when they are 6, 8, or 10 as they are at 3 either. Yup, you guessed it. I tried to pass it off as yellow spaghetti. This time rather than as a meal I prepared it as a side dish, sautéing it with butter and fresh parmesan cheese. I made the same thing for my wife and I except ours was loaded with all of the veggies kids won’t eat, red bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, scallions and mushrooms. All I’m going to say is, the oven roasted chicken was nothing but bones on a platter. They picked the chicken clean. If it weren’t for the chicken and the healthy portion of salad that is a daily part of the Hot Buns menu, I think that all of my kids would have opted for starvation. While the spaghetti squash came out quite tasty, at least the grown ups enjoyed it, I think that the texture may have been the culprit in what follows.
Back to the star of this show, the spaghetti squash. After much debate about how it didn’t look like pasta, it smells funny, what kind of pasta is yellow?, etc.,etc… the first to actually try it was my daughter. Now this was a great feat in and of itself because for the entire 10 years of her little life we have had to all but force feed her anything new. She wasn’t too bad actually. She did the scrunched up face and downed her three strands of yellow pasta with about 16 ounces of water.
Next came my littlest and most opinionated, my six year old. To watch him in action is a true spectacle to behold. You would think that he is the most aggrieved person in all the land. He just said no and acclaimed that the only reason we make him try new things is because he is the littlest.
Third was JD, my 12 year old. Let me start off with this vision for you: my oldest baby, now 12, is only a scant shorter than his 5’ 10” Dad, and has much bigger feet. Imagine now trying to get someone of near adult size to try something like vegetables. It really is quite a sight to behold. But alas, he picked up his fork and with every ounce of willpower forced himself to put the fork to his lips, open wide, place the fork full of two strands of spaghetti squash and 3 ounces of butter and cheese into his mouth and….gag. Yup that’s right, gag. Just a little gag mind you but a gag none the less. That was the actual beginning of the judging though. Up until now it was amateur night. What came next was truly amazing.
Last but not least was my 8 year old. Now I didn’t expect the show we got here because he usually will try almost anything, almost. The trouble is if he doesn’t want to try it, it usually isn’t pleasant when he does. Last night was no exception. He put the food in his mouth and you would have sworn he just drank syrup of ipecac. Not the reaction you really want to something that took you nearly an hour to make.
And the winner is……….
My 8 year old. There is actually no trophy for this one, but I think I’ll leave spaghetti squash off the menu for a while.
Spahgetti squash? Really? Is that what it is? Good to know.
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