Sunday, May 13, 2007

I can't like that

A while back, my three year old neice, Cassidy, and my brother came to my house for dinner. I thought I'd come up with an ingenious plan to get her to eat the tomato and chickpea dish that I was serving. I put a little of the pureed mixture (sans the whole chickpeas) in a small bowl and presented it to her with some crackers. I told her it was "dip" - Cassidy calls anything in which you dunk something else dip (the ketchup for french fries, the tamarind chutney for pappadums, etc.). Though Cassidy has become a picky eater, she loves dipping and I thought she'd be so charmed by the presentation she'd forget to scrutinize what it was she was about to eat.

Ha - wishful thinking. I set it before her, she gave it one look and pronounced, "I can't like that". Of course, I had to stifle my laughter - she'd obviously confused "can't" with "don't". Or had she? I thought about it a little and realized that for so many of the foods I say I don't like, it really would be more honest to say that I can't like them. Whether it's the appearance or just of idea of it, I've passed judgement before even tasting. It would be so much easier to be open-minded about food - why can't I?

I'm afraid won't be answering that question today, but I did want to share the latest food which I've decided I can't like (though, in this case I am mildly curious) - the Kool-Aid Pickle, aka the Koolickle.

7 comments:

Leigh said...

Well, you had a clever idea but your neice was too clever to fall for it! When my kids were little and refused to eat broccoli, I told them to pretend they were dinosaurs and the broccoli was trees. Fortunately that one worked!

I will have to ply my second batch of painted roving another way so as to make it more like variegated yarn. Thanks for the idea!

Anonymous said...

Nice try with your niece, Cathy. When I was little and refused to eat something, my father would say something like, "Carrots will make your hair curly" (I always wanted curly hair), or, "Popular girls eat lots of green beans." Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn't.

As for the Koolickles...oh my. Those look pretty gnarly.

Cathy said...

Hi Leigh! How do we get so deeply suspicious of food? It's amazing some of the things she will eat, but then there are others that you'd expect she'd like but she doesn't. Then there are the things she used to like (brocolli) and no longer likes - I'll have to try the tree story on her!

I really love that yarn you spun from the painted roving. Funny thing is, right after I posted my comment I realized it was probably because of the plying that it came out looking as it did. But now, I can't figure out how you would make it look like variegated yarn - would you have to line up the plys just right?

Hi Mari! I don't remember any incentives like that - for us it was just, "eat it or there'll be no dessert"! That usually worked for me :)

Anonymous said...

Wow...that pickle does NOT look appealing...but...I WOULD try it. I'm smiling picturing your 3 year old niece saying "I can't like that"...too cute!

Cathy said...

Hi Alice!! How are you? Well if you try one of those pickles you must report back! Hope you're doing well!

Alanna Kellogg said...

Aha. So many people turning up their noses and yet no one's tasted them! I have and they're good! And the color's very fun. They'll post shortly ... hope you're well!

Cathy said...

Hi Alanna! You made some? I can't wait to hear about your experience with them! I really am curious about them, I just have a bit of an aversion to Kool Aid. Good to hear from you!