When I first met Erik and all of his kids, I was in a real shock as to how picky they all were with food. Some worse than others.
I was used to cooking healthy, fresh dinners with lots of fruit, veggies and fresh herbs, and Erik wouldn’t even eat salad!
It’s taken a few years, but now I can get them to eat more foods (and Erik loves spinach salad).
Now that we’re living the country life, there are many more foods for the kids to refuse to try to eat. The first one was venison (deer meat). They swore up and down that they’d never eat it, so I only let them eat the hamburger the first year, then served them up steaks the next year.
When they began exclaiming how tender and delicious it was, that’s when we told them what hey were REALLY eating, a year later.
Then there were the rabbits. I had always wanted to try them, so Erik and Eian went out with the shotgun and killed a few wild ones. I excitedly brought them into the house and tossed them onto the counter, then went to dress them, only to realize in horror that they were covered in fleas!
I threw them outside and covered them in snow for 20 minutes.
I cut them up like a chicken and put them into a stew with veggies to cook. They were pretty tasty, and the kids more or less ate their plates.
The Guennia hens were another story.
NO ONE wanted to eat them. Erik had bought them for insect control and to guard the chickens. But after dogs ran through the yard and killed 8 chickens and one guennia hen, we realized it was time to shoot the other two and turn them into dinner (they were extremely loud and obnoxious).
I roasted it like chicken and it came out terribly tough. I cooked it for someone’s birthday over at Randy’s house (Erik’s Dad). Since no one wanted to eat it, I didn’t tell them it was a guennia hen! I still have one in the freezer I need to think of how/when to cook!
MUSHROOMS ARE FUN.
Mushrooms are our latest adventure. The easiest of course is the Giant Puffball. We had found several out in the yard last fall, and I decided to cook it up like eggplant. I dredged it in eggs and covered it in breadcrumbs and fried them. Then I doused them with a seasoned tomato sauce, mozzarella, diced tomatoes and fresh basil then threw them under the broiler.
They tasted JUST LIKE EGGPLANT!
So the next night . . .
I was making chicken burgers, and Erik told me to secretly cook-up another puffball mushroom patty and give it to Eian.
So I did, and told him it was a fish patty. He wolfed it down eagerly and was just finishing his plate when I asked him about it:
(Video will be uploaded later, sorry!)
He denies liking it. He insists it tasted terrible but he ate it anyway. Eian NEVER eats things he doesn’t like.
I still chop-up mushrooms into tiny pieces and stuff them into dinner. The kids never know it.
Someday they’ll realize they like them . . . .
Until then, it’s back to making dinner and not telling them what’s in it!