just pork products. It’s more about preferences that are easy to cede.

when do we find out the 5 ingredients? I still want to know everything else, like the check amount and if my friend had a second date with Veronica.

No judgment, but I think upbringings are enriched when parents take the lead in pushing children to try new things, culinary ones included. Quickly tapering to hot pockets, fish sticks, pizza, and chicken nuggets is a too common and enduring rut. It does call for time and patience, which I know to be in short supply these days, but I think the investment is worth it. I was beaming when my daughter asked "I'd like something I've never had before" ahead of breakfast.

Mealtimes, I learned, can be special if you allow them to be or they can reduced to an interruption to screen time. I choose to nurture the former.

Only some pork products as he allows the prosciutto. I think you had some pork dumplings or buns too so maybe those are allowed or you snuck them in the house.

I'm so thankful that I grew up with parents who were relatively adventurous eaters (for the 1970s) and great cooks. We'd have enchiladas one day and mu shu pork the next, paella then lasagna, my mom even cooked tempura. We generally had to follow a "eat everything" or "try everything" rule, though ironically they did not force us to eat shrimp as kids and I joke now that it's because they appreciated the cost savings! Unlucky for them, I finally discovered I liked shrimp while flying transatlantic in first class on Pan Am -- thanks shrimp cocktail!

When I was little, we rarely ate out, with a few exceptions. We'd spend 2 weeks in a cottage on Sanibel island every year, and usually went out for 2 dinners (an Italian restaurant on Gulf Road, plus either Mucky Duck, Chadwick's or Bubble Room) and 1 brunch (Chadwick's) while there. And when I was 10 we moved to DC and had a family subscription to National Geographic's weekly lecture series, which ran maybe 8-10 weeks, always on Friday nights, followed by dinner out. When I was 13 we moved overseas and started taking international trips 3 times a year, so then my restaurant dining experiences really amped up.

Our dinners were always held at our kitchen table or dining room table. The TV was off, we were expected to leave books and toys in our rooms, and we were expected to interact with each other.

Hot dogs, pasta ( Mac & cheese, spaghetti & meatballs, lasagne), fried chicken - white meat only, meat loaf & pizza.

she did eat other things like rice, corn, cereal, pancakes but the 5 things were dinner mains.

my mother’s repertoire also included thin, dried out pork chops that were 90% fat and bone, well done roast beef, hamburgers made from the cheapest ground beef so there was a little grey fat puddle on top of each that you hid with ketchup, swordfish on Friday and turkey twice a year.

side dishes were limited to corn, baked beans and frozen spinach with occasional fruited jello, carrot and raisin salad and French fries.

there was always a loaf of slice white bread on the dinner table.

to her credit, no one could top her desserts. She was the best baker I’ve ever encountered and baked something fresh for dessert almost every night.

Tonight's dinner was a cup of chili followed by grilled sirloin steak, cooked medium rare. Geno and Grace each enjoyed a small bit of steak as well.

omg---are you all suffering from malnutrition?

Trader Joe’s chicken enchiladas
cheese nachos
guacamole
mixed green salad


I’m more horrified about fried chicken white meat only - eek. I love thighs.

What horrifies you explains a lot!


grilled Caesar salad with toasted panko instead of croutons....to go with the last of my New Year's pizza.

I’m so intrigued by the pastrami pizza. Would you ever make it? I saw pastrami slices at Costco.

I've talked about this pizza and even posted photos on here before. Yes, I love it but wouldn't bother making it plus I only do pizza directly on the grill (I don't have a stone) and the flavor of the crust would be different. And I don't know if I could get the proportions right. I might as well let the place do it. Every grocery and deli has pastrami....in fact the place that has the pizza is a deli.

That is an Alsacian tradition. Choucroute D'Alsace.

Last night were some sausages from Augie's Montreal Deli (beef hot dog with Montreal Smoke Meat mixed in) on Acme bread with some cheese melted in, and sauteed onions and peppers, with seeded mustard.