Domestic Delia

[pegkerr]

Delia has always been the much more domestic of our two girls. I mean, this is a girl who within one week of getting her iPod had discovered and downloaded all the Cook's Illustrated podcasts and soon was seriously discussing the relative merits of various brands of cookware. She loves to make cakes and bread (which reminds me: she's been complaining again that OMIGOD she is out of YEAST, which is a CATASTROPHE and if I know what's good for me I'll make sure we get that on the next grocery shopping list). She has been busily exploring all my various linens I got for my wedding and even the linens I inherited from my grandmother, and frequently over the past month I've come home to find that she has nicely set the table with a whole other set of place mats and matching napkins and plates that it hadn't occurred to me to use for ten years. Or she'll have the table set for tea, using my Nana's tea set.

She is sewing all sorts of things. She is making beautiful jewelry. She is knitting. One of her birthday presents for her sister was a knitted cell phone case which was just so cute I just about exploded.

Cooking, other than baking, is rather problematic. She is extremely interested in cooking, and goes through and marks up all sorts of cookbooks--but her tastes are whimsical when it comes right down to making things. One of the side effects of some medication she is taking, I think, is that things sometimes taste weird, and her appetite is unpredictable. She is, as we have previously noted, a supertaster, and she is also extremely sensitive to textures, and she'll reject something if it feels "weird" in her mouth.

She is leaning, again, to wanting to be a vegetarian. Her reasons are mostly philosophical (loves animals, doesn't want to eat them) and her revulsion for the texture of meat is growing. Except she still ALSO has revulsion for many cooked vegetables. We are having a great deal of trouble identifying protein sources which she will deign to eat, which has meant (esp. since she's as skinny as a rail) that she's been troubled a great deal by hypoglycemic incidents this spring, especially after intense karate classes.

Does any one know of a, say a cooking class locally (not too expensive) to suggest for say, parents of kids, when the kid wants to become a vegetarian? I know a lot, more than most parents about vegetarianism, but I must admit, I'm somewhat stymied by Delia's endlessly changing reactions to tastes and textures--trying to keep her nutrition adequate on a vegetarian diet that she will EAT is like trying to hit a swiftly moving target. Or does anyone know any skilled vegetarian cooks who might be willing to tutor an eager-to-learn kid who is, really, quite a good cook already, but just needs to be shown the ropes on vegetarian cooking?

I just found Compassionate Cooks podcast, a vegetarian podcast, and told her about it, and she's gone ahead and subscribed to it on iTunes. Other thoughts, anyone?

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Comments

[naomikritzer]

What Delia needs here isn't so much a cooking tutorial as an eating tutorial. You need a semi-evangelical vegetarian or vegan who will have Delia over a few times to eat a sampling of mild-tasting protein-oriented vegetarian foods, and get recipes and some instruction, if they're tricky, for the things she finds most palatable.

Unfortunately, the person I know who would TOTALLY do this lives in Boston.

Do you know Barth? Cooking classes for would-be vegetarian kids sounds like something the Wedge would do (or could consider doing). You could suggest it to him and also see if he knows any evangelical vegetarians.

I would actually think tofu -- plain, unflavored tofu -- would be a really good thing for Delia to experiment with, since she's a supertaster with texture issues. Unflavored tofu is almost tasteless. When I couldn't eat dairy, I actually made myself a pseudo-chocolate-pudding that used tofu, sugar, and chocolate -- this wouldn't be a good thing to eat daily as an entree because of the sugar content, but it does show how versatile the stuff is.

The problem with handing her some good cookbooks is that many vegetarian cookbooks are oriented towards providing food that is highly flavored and provides a variety of textures. What textures can she fairly consistently tolerate?

[naomikritzer]

Also, I know you've done this before, but if you want to write out the current version of what Delia consistently finds palatable, I could direct my vegan friend in Boston over here to see if she could suggest protein sources and cookbooks for a picky supertasting kid with texture issues.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Here's the link with the family's likes/dislikes.

[lauzeta.livejournal.com]

That's amazing.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

And maddening. Trust me.

[pants-of-doom.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm the vegan friend in Boston.

I know very little about supertasting, but looking at the likes/dislikes page, I'm noting that it doesn't say much about raw fruits or vegetables, so you may want to look into a raw foods book or two. Ecopolitan has a section, they're a restaurant on about 24th and Lyndale. Raw foods sound weird to people who aren't that familiar, but it's really very good for you.

Protein sources: nuts, nut butters, seeds, black beans, lentils, rice, quinoa, tofu, seitan (she can make her own here, it's not difficult, and it's easy to make variations on flavors), tempeh (I have no idea if the texture here would be weird, it tends to be a love it or hate it food).

I would also say try different kinds of mushrooms, and try grilling them or putting them in soup, but different kinds of mushrooms are nothing alike to me.

Miso and seaweed might be useful if she's okay with the taste.

Soup may also be a good way around the texture issue, since most soups will blend fine and then you just have liquid.

Cookbooks: I don't know how accessible these are for kids, but they're cookbooks I like and have found helpful.
Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Moskowitz
Veganomicon, Moskowitz and Romero (this is a favorite cookbook of a lot of omnivores I know, and has good basic instructions for a lot of things)
Joy of Vegan Baking, by the Compassionate Cooks author whose name I can't remember
Moosewood, by Mollie Katzen
I've heard very good things about Vegan Lunchbox and that it's partly geared towards things that are accessible to kids, making as well as eating, but I don't actually know
The New Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas (one of my omnivore dad's favorites, very user-friendly)
Complete Vegetarian Kitchen, by Lorna Sass (she's a little obsessed with pressure cookers but there are instructions for if, like me, you haven't got one)
if she takes an interest in any particular ethnic cuisine that's also a good starting place.
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison (kind of a couch-levelling book but very complete in many ways)

I hope this is helpful, and I'm happy to talk about it more if you want.

[naomikritzer]

Hey, another food suggestion that she should try: edamame. You can buy them pre-shelled at United Noodle for $1.69/pound in the freezer section. (They're more expensive at the Rainbow.) They are not at all like any other form of cooked bean, IMO. I really disliked kidney beans, etc., for a looooong time for texture reasons -- they tended to suck up moisture when you bit into them, and then stick in my throat. I HATED that as a kid. Edamame are completely different -- the texture is a little like fresh corn. They have a flavor but it's very mild and not at all bitter. They are extremely high in protein.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I'm not a supertaster, or at most a mild one, but I think our concept of flavor differs. I love soy beans (edamame), but I would say that they have a reasonably strong taste. I do complain at the lack of flavor in plain tofu, but I would not call the common varieties almost flavorless. Instead, I'd say plain tofu has a very mild flavor.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I love edamame. I've offered it to Delia, but she didn't like it.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

For texture, she can tolerate smooth. And pasta. And some (but not all) kinds of crunch.

It's the in-between textures that freak her out--sometimes. But it's really not predictable. Some stuff she'll eat and I think ah ha! We have a winner! And the next time I serve it, she'll turn her nose up at it.

I do think the meds are adding a lot to the confusion.

[naomikritzer]

The crunchy protein source that leaps to mind is nuts. Does she like nuts?

The smooth protein source that comes to mind is yogurt. Does she like yogurt?

I'm thinking here more in terms of "feed her so that she doesn't pass out at karate" than "what should the Ihingers have for dinner." Even if we came up with an entire recipe book of fabulously Delia-friendly recipes, that doesn't mean Rob or Fiona would eat any of them. ;-)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

She'll eat peanut butter (as long as it's smooth, only), but we've been relying on it so much lately that she's getting bored with it. Same with yogurt. I opened a small Yoplait container for her as a tide-me-over before karate class, and she ate only a quarter of it before pushing the rest aside.

Scrambled eggs are still reliable. Thank god.

[naomikritzer]

Hummous? Hummous varies a ton, so if she's had it and disliked it, you might try again with the Cedar's regular hummous (available at Lunds, $2/container -- they also have lots of flavored varieties).

I like it on pita, but I have on occasion eaten it with a spoon.

Also, similar texture to peanut butter but a different taste -- Sunbutter? Available at Lunds, $2/jar. Can be sent for lunch in a peanut-free environment. (Molly liked Sunbutter fine for a while, then went off it. She still loves peanut butter and likes getting it for lunch on weekends. We don't send it for school lunch.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

She does like hummus. We haven't tried sunbutter--maybe that'd be good to try.

[creepygirl-chow.livejournal.com]

If she likes hummus, and dislikes garbanzo beans, maybe it's a texture issue more than a flavor issue. So maybe other bean purees, or pureed bean or lentil soups might be worth a try.

Alternatives to peanut butter--maybe Delia could make cashew butter (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_24830,00.html). I haven't tried that particular recipe, but I've had cashew butter and found it to be fairly mild. Also, some of the stores around where I live have been grinding chocolate chips with nuts to make chocolate nut butters. Adding some chocolate might relieve some of the peanut butter ennui.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, and otherwise: no to nuts. She'll refuse any baked good with nuts in it, for example. Texture again, I think.

[serenya-loreden.livejournal.com]

I will eat nuts all by themselves (specifically, I like almonds, cashews, pistachios), but not IN things, generally. My peanut butter must be smooth (but I actually prefer 100%, no sugar added) and I typically will not eat baked goods with nuts unless very finally chopped (I like most baklava-type pastries and rum balls, for instance). For me, it's the unexpected crunch I think, though as an adult I learned to appreciate them more (I now add slivered almonds to my salads), so she too may outgrow some of this. If she'll eat a handful of nuts, it's an excellent protein snack, though it may take some trial and error to find ones she likes.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

What if they are ground up, essentially into flour?

Dunno if she'd like it, but maybe you would like this linzertorte (http://thomasyan.livejournal.com/241174.html) recipe.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

We have made pameladean's Vegan French Silk Pie, which is melted chocolate blended with tofu until smooth, and then thrown in a chocolate pie shell. Everyone loves that. That's about the only tofu recipe that Delia's tried that she's liked.

I had thought of the Wedge this afternoon, but didn't have a chance yet to check to see if they had classes.

[naomikritzer]

How does she feel about frozen or previously-frozen fruit? Or canned fruit?

Can you buy her a couple of bricks of tofu and a couple of possible blending agents and let her sit down with a blender and experiment a bit? You could get some frozen mixed fruit and maybe a little sugar and let her try small batches of tofu/fruit blends to see if anything is palatable. (I suggest frozen fruit mostly because it's much cheaper than the fresh kind -- you'd probably want to thaw it before blending it with tofu, though maybe not, the results would be slightly different for each.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

at Delia needs here isn't so much a cooking tutorial as an eating tutorial. You need a semi-evangelical vegetarian or vegan who will have Delia over a few times to eat a sampling of mild-tasting protein-oriented vegetarian foods, and get recipes and some instruction, if they're tricky, for the things she finds most palatable.

I need the lady who does the Vegan Lunchbox. She could get any kid excited about vegetarian food.