Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Creativity, Cooking and Kids

I love Food Network.ca, and on APTN "Cooking with the Wolfman" a show about aboriginal fusion cuisine. These types of shows have raised the bar for me in terms of giving me cooking and baking skills I was missing, and generally to broaden my cooking horizons. There are a few shows which are souring - Crash My Kitchen is presumptuous, and Just One Bite make kids the power brokers of meal time. To be fair, kids can be ruinous of kitchen harmony - my 7-year-old can destroy the ambience of a labour-intensive epic meal with "Eww, what is all that green stuff."

The shows aimed at parents getting kids to eat in a healthy way try one-off, dismissive antedotes that pander to the fast-food lifestyle. I'm not adverse to the occasional visit to a burger joint, but it isn't regular, and not used as positive reinforcement. And the beauty line about getting kids helping in the kitchen just doesn't work well for this disabled mom - I have little enough stamina to cook, let alone clean flour off the walls afterwards...

I don't want my daughter to grow up too fast. Childhood is precious and innocence gone too soon - but to be honest, I look forward to the day when portobello mushrooms aren't shrieked at, and snow peas aren't sereptitiously used as bookmarks.

On a positive note, I have decided to write my own aboriginal cookbook - some fusion ideas but from a different perspective than David Wolfman. I have healing in mind, with the idea of food as epicurean medicine. As I write this, about 1/3 of the book is done, and awaiting a native press. I'm sure it won't be appealing to many children because the food won't be very recognizable, but it will be something kind of exotic.

It has been a WONDERFUL excuse to buy new appliances and kitchen gadgets!!

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