Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater

Unless you're the kind of "sneak vegetables into your loved ones" freak that I am, it may have escaped you that there's a pumpkin shortage going on. Seriously. When I embarked on my project of baking random sweets full of vegetables (in an effort to combat the effect of Duncan's poor attention span on his nutritional intake), I researched a lot of recipes. I've accumulated recipes for zucchini, beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and who knows what else. I was sort of saving pumpkin for a desperate moment. Since I buy it in cans still, it's always there. But I went through this phase last fall when I loved pumpkin and gorged on pumpkin beer, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin muffins. At the beginning of June I went looking for a new muffin to try for Duncan and thought I'd break out the sweet potato muffin recipe, which calls for canned pumpkin. I thought, why not? I was excited because I had kind of missed the pumpkin. Easy peasy.

I couldn't find pumpkin anywhere in Stop and Shop. I thought, it's a big store, we're in a hurry, I'll get it next time. I popped into the local Freshtown to pick up a can. I KNOW where the pumpkin is in Freshtown, but there was none to be found. I looked in Stop and Shop again, to no avail. On my fourth attempt, I actually asked someone in the store to help me with the pumpkin. The nice boy walked me to where the pumpkin should be (the Jell-O and pie filling section, by the way), and the shelf was empty. He apologized profusely when he saw the sign, which read "This item is temporarily unavailable." Jokingly, I said to Jamie "Either there's some kind of pumpkin shortage going on, or everyone in the tri-state area is baking pumpkin pies for the summer."

On a whim, I typed "pumpkin shortage" into my web browser that night. Low and behold, there is a shortage of canned pumpkin. (I did read several articles from reputable news sources, but go ahead. Try it yourself). The growing conditions for the last two summers (overly wet and cool) resulted in lower pumpkin harvests and reduced production of canned pumpkin. In fact, people have even been selling cans of pumpkin on eBay. (It's true.  I looked. I did not, however buy. I'm not CRAZY. Just touched. Special, maybe. Crazy, no.) Mystery solved. I'm kind of sad because I really do enjoy pumpkin. I'm also disappointed that I didn't have the sense to roast my own pumpkin, like SOME people I know (Matt and Courtney...who probably still have last year's pumpkin in their freezer).  But there you have it. If you were thinking pumpkin pie, think again. And if you happen to live in an area lucky enough to still carry canned pumpkin, pick me up a can, would you?

Talk About Slow Food

We keep a small vegetable garden. This year, we have 18 square feet planted with lettuce, carrots, peas, beans, scarlet runner beans, peppers, basil, parsley, cucumbers, lima beans, small watermelon, and small cantaloupe. We also have seven or eight tomato plants in grow bags. The vegetable garden doesn't really produce much, at least it hasn't in the last three years, and with our CSA membership, it's kind of unnecessary. I guess I keep doing it because I want to keep us in the habit so that when we have our own house, I can grow a bigger and more productive garden. It's also kind of fun and helps keep Duncan connected to the earth in between our weekly visits to the farm. He's proud that the lima bean he started at school from a seed is growing like a weed, and he likes to eat lettuce right out of the ground. Even if we ate nothing, I would think it was a useful exercise.

One interesting and annoying feature of our house is its lack of outdoor spigots. I have to water everything by hand, with watering cans filled at the kitchen sink. Since we're in the middle of a heat wave, I have to water every day. It takes eight watering cans to water everything:  vegetable boxes, flowers in pots and barrels, hanging basket, shade garden. I am embracing the fact that it takes me 4 trips in and out of the house to water everything; I'm thinking of it as extra exercise. I wouldn't mind if if cooled down by 30 degrees and rained every fourth or fifth day, but in the meantime, as long as I keep up the watering can routine, the plants are loving the heat wave. I hope it's really worth it because that is some seriously slow food.

Glimpses

One of the things I find tricky about parenting is that you never know how things will turn out. Some days I feel like a good parent; on other days, I don't bring my best game. I have to hope that the good days will outweigh the bad days in the end. I hope that all the lessons I want to teach my son will take root and that he will end up a happy, productive, and healthy person. In the meantime, regardless of whatever happened today, I still have to get up and do it again tomorrow. Sometimes that means brushing off the fact that I returned home from work impatient and rolled my eyes when I had to play Grand Central Station with GeoTrax. Sometimes it means leaving behind my frustration with begging and whining and hoping that my child will be replaced with a pleasant and compliant pod person. Sometimes it means collecting those moments where I made my child giggle or when he thanks me for a gesture so small that it breaks my heart a little. "This is really good bread Mama. Thank you for making it." Sometimes it means appreciating that a four year old is proud that he knows how to make grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza and help bake muffins.

Tonight was one of those moments. We were working on cajoling Duncan to finish his dinner. I bit my tongue as he pulled the carrots out of his salad and stacked them in a pile on his place mat. A million voices screamed inside my head:  "Don't play with your food!" Then he put all the carrots in his mouth at once. A million voices in my head lectured:  "You'll choke." (Only one adult actually said the words aloud, and it was not me)  I was biting back "Don't play with your food!" again when Duncan pulled all the vegetables he didn't like out of his salad bowl and piled them on his plate. And in the silence where I was actively working on NOT nagging my child, he said "I'm going to put these guys over here. This can be the compost pile."

And I will save that one in my mental scrapbook to remind me that this child is really learning all the lessons I'm trying to teach him about the environment. He is learning that we don't use paper napkins so that we can save trees. He is learning that we don't buy individually packaged snacks so that we can use less plastic. He is genuinely learning that vegetables and eggs come from a farm and that farmer Dan works hard so we can have lettuce. The compost pile has become part of his everyday life. I see a glimpse that this child of mine will grow into a good steward of the earth, and it makes me hopeful; not just hopeful that he will turn out okay, but hopeful that he and his peers will make a difference on this planet. They will grow up learning how to put it right.

Talk about a leap of faith.

"No Way, Jose": Zucchini Muffins Deemed Failure by Small Fry

The zucchini muffins have been declared inedible by the youngest of our pack. Even though he had already eaten two on previous days, Duncan narrowly avoided a major breakfast meltdown this morning. First, I slathered the muffin with butter and apple butter. "Mama, I don't LIKE this muffin." I convinced him to take a bite. Taking a bite moved some of the apple butter so that more muffin was exposed. I was implored to apply more apple butter. Then followed "I have to eat it upside down so I can taste the apple butter, but if I turn it upside down the apple butter falls off." So I cut it into pieces and encouraged him to eat bites upside down (the bites, not Duncan) with a fork. No. At that point, I have to admit that I became testy and sensitive, pitched the muffin in the trash, and handed him a cheese stick. Our entire Mama/Duncan breakfast bonding time derailed by a zucchini muffin.

It's a good thing I like those muffins because there are 10 more where this one came from. Back to the drawing board with sweet potatoes in the queue. I am now accepting new auditions for the role of "zucchini muffin recipe." Thanks for nothing, Epicurious.

Zucchini Muffins

Ever since I made the carrot muffins, Duncan has insisted on eating one every morning for breakfast, with his daily, hard boiled egg. I feel much about what happens at lunch time knowing that he's already had a serving of vegetables when he leaves the house in the morning. I've baked two batches now, and he helped me bake the last batch so he knows about the carrots now. "I don't care, Mama. I like those muffins." Good strategy:  hit them with a tasty baked good; letter admit to the presence of a vegetable. This weekend, I tried zucchini muffins with cranberries. Much to my surprise, I think they could use a little MORE sugar, but I gave one to Duncan at dinner, and he wolfed it down. So far, so good. Next in the baking queue are sweet potato muffins, but my friend Lisamarie just gave me a recipe for frittata muffins, which could be a pretty flexible way to chow down some vegetables and protein. Duncan started asking for Captain Crunch this weekend (though I choose to pretend he has it confused with Pirate's Booty) so I'd better act fast!

(Lunch time follow up:  We found out that Miss Anne, the preschool director, has been making Duncan sit with her at lunch several days a week so she can monitor his eating. If he has a few good days, she lets him try sitting with his friends again. She also discovered the strategy of giving him only one food at a time so he doesn't become overwhelmed. Though it left us whacking ourselves in the forehead and saying "duh," it was nice to know that Anne had identified the problem and worked on a solution before we even had a chance to bring up our concern).

Let Us Eat Lettuce

You might not have guessed this from my previous few posts, but Duncan is actually a pretty good eater. He eats more vegetables than most adults I know. While his favorites remain the basics (green beans, peas, corn, tomatoes), he has been willing to try almost any vegetable we have plated for him. Among others he has eaten willingly are:  broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, sweet potatoes, raw carrots, celery (with peanut butter), fennel, snow peas, radishes, celeriac, beets, broccoli raab, eggplant, arugula, and turnips). He's not fond of red or green pepper or those mini corns that come in cans. He was wise enough not to touch swiss chard, spinach, or any of the other greens that made their way into our lives last summer, but I can live with that. To my chagrin, the vegetable he adamantly refused to eat, however, was lettuce. Considering the number of salads we made with our Chubby Bunny yield last summer, it was frustrating. Any time we made salad, we had to come up with another vegetable for him. Because lettuce is a key ingredient in salad, he wouldn't try any other kind of salad; no egg salad, no tuna salad, no potato salad. Lettuce, for goodness sake. Who doesn't eat lettuce?

Last weekend we were out in the yard, and Duncan discovered a "volunteer" lettuce growing in our as-yet-unseeded vegetable patch. "Is this lettuce, Mama?" he asked. "I want to try some." I ripped off a piece, blew off the dust, and handed it to him. "I LIKE lettuce!" he exclaimed. For the first time, Duncan ate salad last night when we were at Four Brothers, and he had another tonight with dinner. Periodically, he comes into the kitchen and asks "Can I have a lettuce?" Or even cuter, "Can Daddy and I split a lettuce?" I can't argue with a kid who wants to eat lettuce right out of the refrigerator.  Or the ground, for that matter.

Various statistics say a child may need to be offered a new food 10, 15, or even as many as 20 times before he will eat it. If you have a finicky kid, or a passion for a less-than-everyday vegetable, or a CSA membership that sends you home weekly with unfamiliar produce, keep trying. You just never know if today might be the day that your child will eat kohlrabi.  Or lettuce.

Wednesday Vegetable Randomness

Okay, as a follow up to Sneaky Vegetables, I skimmed my two CSA cookbooks in search of baking recipes that include vegetables. I'll do a more extensive search on the web later when I have more time. I'm also thinking that I could probably get Duncan to eat something like mini-quiche for breakfast, and I could load them with vegetables. Nonetheless, I'm intrigued by the whole idea of sneaking vegetables into baked goods. As my friend Courtney would say, no need to read...just really publishing this to the world so that I'll hold myself to investigating these things.

Vegetables to bake:

carrots
zucchini
beets (in chocolate cake...who knew)
turnips
sweet potatoes
winter squash

Welcoming suggestions from the vegetable intrepid.