How to deal with fussy grownups: Reader Q&A

Jul 10, 2011 by

A reader from Texas had this question for us:

So how do you feel about grownups who come to your house and state that they will not eat any food that is not organic, vegetarian, free range, or fair trade? This happens to be the night you are cooking steaks and nonorganic baked potatoes. Is this any different than the rebellious child, or just an extension of what happens as the rebellious child grows up? Would you cook a special meal for this person, in addition to the food you had already prepared, or would you simply say, “I was not aware that you had food preferences. Had I known, I would have prepared accordingly. However, I am not offended if you decline to join us.”

Sacred Appetite answers:

Miss Dinner Table Manners is shocked and dismayed that grown adults would…

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Top 8 things to cut expenses on so you can spend more on quality groceries

Oct 23, 2009 by

  1. Restaurant meals
  2. Soda
  3. Junky snacks
  4. Cable TV
  5. Movies in the theater
  6. Electronic gadgets and video games
  7. New cars
  8. New clothes

Related post: “Reaching the Promised Land: Home Style or Restaurant” Style? https://www.thehappydinnertable.com/2009/09/28/reaching-the-promised-land-home-style-or-restaurant-style/

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Which nuts are the best?

Jul 4, 2009 by

Stock nuts

It’s as easy to eat well and feed your children well as it is to eat poorly. Well, OK, not really, but sometimes, in some ways. OK, mostly it’s not exactly easier, but occasionally just having a little accurate information is all it takes to make a better choice over a worse choice.  I’m all for building in as many ways as possible to do this thing better without increasing my effort.  I figure the more good choices I can make, the less my bad ones will matter.

A reader asked me some time back which nuts were the best to feed children.  I really had no clue and hadn’t thought about the question.

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Conventional Wisdom Versus the Truth about Why Kids Won’t Eat Their Vegetables

Mar 26, 2009 by

Veggie man “Getting a child to enjoy healthy food is next to impossible, but there is no harm trying,” says a website that talks of “making” kids eat healthy foods by piling food in humorous structures on the plate.

“Most kids will turn up their nose at the sight of anything green,” another web source matter-of-factly warns parents that might not be aware of this “truth.”

Kids are fussy. They‘re hard to please, conventional wisdom tells us. Feeding them is Difficult. It’s A Problem. Kids are born wanting to eat what’s bad for them,…

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Why A Child’s Place is In the Kitchen: Relating To and Through Food

Mar 23, 2009 by

This post was featured in the Charlotte Mason blog carnival on June 9, 2009

Mom and kids cooking

The question is not,—how much does the youth know? When he has finished his education—but how much does he care? And about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? And therefore, how full is the life he has before him?  — Charlotte Mason

Psalm 31:8 Thou hast set my feet in a large room.

My French mother-in-law, Lucienne, once told me early in my marriage that she thought that cooking well helped one keep one’s husband. …

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