Feed Us Back: foodie babies, tequila soup and vagina homebrew

–debbie koenigsays you’ve gotta play it cool if you want tomake your baby a foodie:

As the food writer mom of a vexingly picky 4-yr-old: Try not to worry about it too much. Seriously, in my experience a lot of the food refusal is related to power struggles–the more clear it is to my son that I care about what he eats, the less likely he is to try something. Just keep serving–and eating in front of her–all the delicious, healthy stuff you normally eat.

Does this really work? So we should stop slipping truffle oil and sriracha into the baby’s bottle?

-Tikabelleshares the most heartwarmingsoup storywe’ve ever heard:

Once at Tres Agaves in Rocklin, CA, the soup of the day wasn’t ready yet. We were eating in the bar, and after making alternative food choices my friend and I were chatting when the bartender put two flutes of tequila in front of us. Surprised, we asked what it was – despite the fumes of Good Tequila coming from the glasses – and he replied, “it’s the soup of the day,” with a wink and a smile. Needless to say (though I say it anyway), tequila has become “soup” in our lexicon, and this picture makes me utterly happy. And now I crave soup.

- And thanks for the answers towhat should I put in my first homebrew?Benito:

If you want sheer craziness that will frighten the neighbors, a traditional Oyster Stout is a good choice. No idea how to do this safely at home, but throwing a bunch of shucked oysters in the pot with the other ingredients always struck me as a bit off:

http://www.slashfood.com/2010/01/21/oyster-stout/

There are, occasional attempts at using an… unorthodox source of yeast. No links here because this is a nice family blog, but let’s just say that there’s an intersection of home brewing and modern feminism that isn’t going to be hitting the shelves anytime soon.

For the record, this is not a nice family blog, and we would like to see that link. And keep thosehomebrew ideascoming— they don’t all have to be as crazy as that.

(Photo:cc511)

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How to make your baby a better eater

As you may know, we recently had anew addition to the TVFF household. She’s a bundle of joy and all that good stuff, but I have to admit that I haven’t been too impressed with her one-ingredient diet. It’s not quite the wide-ranging palate that I had hoped for from my offspring.

OK…I understand that we’re doing the best thing possible for her health by feeding her exclusively breast milk. To tide myself over, I’m already dreaming up combinations of pureed goodies that I’ll be making in lieu of buying those jars of baby food. But isn’t there anything that I can bedoing now to turn my kid into a gourmand?

Apparently, according to What to Expect the First Year, there just may be…

Because what you eat affects the taste and smell of your breast milk, your breastfed baby is exposed to different flavors well before he or she is ready to sit down at the dinner table, which may help shape future eating habits.

It goes on to theorize that spicy foods like salsas and curries eaten by the mother may help young children be better able to handle those sorts of bold flavors once it’s time for him or her to move on to solid foods. Needless to say, that meant that the nightly dinner menu has been significantly revamped to include a wide variety of Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Malaysian and Polish items.

How effective will this be? Who knows. But I’d be interested if anyone out there has seen any kind of evidence — anecdotal or scientific — that supports the fact that I can be doing something now that will result in not having to find “chicken nuggets” on the menu every time I take my kid out with us for dinner.

More On Kids’ Eating:
Feeding Monsters
Why America Eats Shit
Kids Are People Too

(Photo:The Adventures of Kristin& Adam)

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