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Vegetabletarians

The whole family is here this week—No. 1 is home from Berkeley, and Eustacia is home from Clevelandish, and it feels good. Every one is getting along, the cats are getting lots of attention, and so far, no one is complaining about being bored, much.

Because she's busy in grad school, No. 1 doesn't often have time to just sit and knit, if that's what she wants to do, and she doesn't play computer games (what did people do before the Sims?), so she's been indulging in those things this week while the rest of us catch up on past episodes of Dexter. We just finished season 2 last night, and I suspect it won't be long before we've got season 3 downloading on Apple TV for another round of serial-killer marathons.

Beyond all of this laziness, we (meaning me) are trying to come up with evening meals everyone will eat. One person won't eat anything from the sea, another won't eat anything with certain spices or certain vegetables or with chicken, and another has become a vegetarian. When you make a list of the things unacceptable, you aren't left with much, so we've decided to experiment with vegetarian dinners to try to accommodate everyone. I'm not sure it's working.

Last night, we had pasta with chickpeas, parsley and Gruyere. It was sort of a hit. But the night before, we had polenta pancakes with avocado and tomato. No. 1 and I thought it was just great, but the others not so much. Eustacia looked at her dinner plate and said, "I don't think I like vegetabletarians."

Tonight, we've got potato curry on the menu, and tomorrow is slated for quinoa-stuffed peppers. We'll see who eats what, and we'll see who makes up what word to voice their displeasure.

Next week when the girls are back at school, cooking will be a lot easier because Husband and I can usually find common ground with the dinner menu. Easier isn't always better, though, and I will really miss my kids. I'll just have to keep that in mind when I dish up dinner this week to the sights and sounds of uncertainty.

Comments

Neponset River Bridge Dig said…
Next week it will be back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. :)
11:26 AM
Vanda said…
Vegetarians are a... challenge. I have a friend who doesn't eat onions or anything cold. Her husband went vegetarian for a while, but then fortunately snapped out of it.
1:11 PM
MmeBenaut said…
One of my girlfriends has 3 adult children and none of them like her cooking so she has given up cooking for them at all. In my opinion, she is one of the best cooks I know - her mother was german and her father is chinese/portuguese and boy did that girl receive some training in the kitchen. Her kids are nuts (no pun intended). Vegetabletarians is a great new word!
7:00 PM
Shan said…
I'm guessing #2 is the non fish eater? I'll have what she's having on odd days and eat with the vegetabletarian on even days. :D
I think feeding grown family members can sometimes get tricky. My mom nixes dessert and keepsthe meals fairly low carb when I'm around. She says we are super easy to feed though so that's always nice. I know that's because my family is just glad to get so many choices and regular meals all along the way.
12:04 AM
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