pegkerr: (Delia)
[personal profile] 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?





(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-29 02:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] potionsprofessor.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)
A book that might help, since Delia enjoys cookbooks so much, is Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. If you're unfamiliar with the text, it's the nonfiction story of the family's year of eating local food, mainly vegetables, mainly grown from their own farm. Each chapter is based on a particular month (or period of a few weeks) and what foods are in season, as well as some recipes written out in story form by the eldest daughter, Camille. There are some really great introductions to "fresh produce, well prepared" that clearly speaks to picky eaters -- and the "let's see if we can do it" challenge of the story might well appeal to a teenage girl. There are some very clear, direct passages that talk about raising animals on a farm for food, which may prove troubling, though.

Really, what I think might be helpful for her is the conceptual excitement of a new endeavor, relayed via a narrative story, that challenges the reader to "try something new" and offers clear descriptions and recipes to make the challenge less than frightening or overwhelming. I know that I've never been so excited about asparagus and rhubarb as I am this spring.

Good luck to you, and to Delia.

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