Taste Buds

It seems very difficult sometimes to select foods that everyone likes. Generally at least two members of our family of five like a particular dish, but it seems challenging to find things all five of us like. Recently I made chicken cordon bleu for the first time in years. Paul was thrilled. He said it was the first thing I cooked for him when we began dating in 1997. I have no recollection of what I cooked for him 22 years ago. Paul and I were the only ones who liked the chicken cordon bleu. I left out the tomatoes (which I happen to LOVE) from the chili I made recently, but Oliver and I had to eat the entire crockpot of chili ourselves over the course of several days as no one else touched it. I should have waited until THIS week to make chili as Joshua tells me his family likes it. Julianna helped me make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I hadn't made those in quite a few months, and they are one of Paul's three most favorite types of cookies (he also loves Heath cookies and M and M cookies). Julianna took a tiny taste of one cookie and that was it. I felt badly that she helped me make them and wasn't able to enjoy eating them. In this instance my taste buds agree with her. I don't eat those cookies either.

Today I made a chicken tortellini soup. Since the Towfighis really loved the chicken and dumplings on Saturday, I thought this would also be a hit. Three of them didn't try it. They opted to have leftover spaghetti even though we were out of meatballs. Joshua did try it, and he must have liked it as he had three servings of it. All nine of us enjoyed the rigatoni and meatballs on Sunday. The Towfighis were excited when I said I was making chicken parmigiana and spaghetti on Monday, but it turns out I make it differently than their mom so most of them preferred to have leftover meatballs instead of the chicken. Joshua did tell me today that the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I made him today was the best one he had ever had in his life. So there you have it. I have talent in making PBJ sandwiches, who knew? Six of the seven kids have been enjoying the jello I've made twice this week. Ian is the only one who doesn't eat jello. I'm planning to make nachos tomorrow night and tuna noodle casserole on Thursday. Here's to hoping most or maybe all seven of the kids might like one or both of those dishes!

If I wanted to please Ian and Nadia then I wouldn't serve anything that included rice or beans. They also don't like any kind of soup, stew, or chili. Lovely. It's almost impossible to find a side dish that Ian likes as he doesn't like macaroni and cheese, rice, baked beans, mashed potatoes, pierogis, sweet potatoes, etc. As far as vegetables go, my three will eat salad, corn, green beans, and carrots. Joel asked for baby carrots so I picked some of those up today. Julianna had been asking for broccoli. While she was in the grocery store with me, I pointed to the broccoli in the produce section and asked if that was what she meant. She said she wanted cooked  broccoli, so I bought a bag in the frozen food section. It turns out I should have bought it from the produce section. Joshua was disappointed, and Julianna only ate a very tiny portion she didn't like that the pieces were cut up. Oliver is the least picky eater in our family, but even he wasn't crazy about the soup tonight. Hopefully in time I'll find more recipes that everyone likes. All five of us like tuna noodle casserole, rigatoni and meatballs, pulled pork, pizza, breakfast bagels, quesadillas, tuna melt pie, chicken barbeque, and hamburgers. Four of us like manicotti, fish filets, sloppy joes, and lasagna.

I've been trying quite a few new recipes lately. In some cases, I plan to use the recipe again in the future. I really like taco salad and chicken enchiladas, but I wasn't loving the either recipe I tried for those two dishes recently even so I ate the lion share of those because I have a strong aversion to wasting food. I've already picked out a different one for chicken enchiladas and plan to give that one a whirl in the near future. I left the vegetables out of the shepherd's pie recently, but it still went over like a lead balloon. I'll keep trying, and hopefully in time they will like a wider variety of foods.