House Sandwiches...unfortunately don't solve everything...Sigh...

I used to think that house sandwiches solved all my lunch-time woes.  In fact, I was all set to write my blog post today about the "Miracle of House Sandwiches." But that would have been a candy coated lie.  The truth is, that only sometimes do house sandwiches create miracles. I'm starting to learn that kids are fickle--okay...maybe not starting to learn, it just gets reinforced on a daily basis. Some things just can't be solved by changing the shape of your bread. Kids are smart! They know that just because a bagel has a hole in it, doesn't make it a super frosted doughnut.

Here's how my lunchtime went yesterday...

"Sydney, you want grilled cheese today?"

"Sure, Mom!" enthusiastically.

"What about you, Colin?"

Grumble grumble.

"Colin?"

In a totally sour tone, "No, Mama."

"What's up, Colin?"

Then, for no apparent reason, Colin decides now would be a great time to throw a torrential fit on the grandest of scales.

So I thought, "Self, let's make these grilled cheese special...let's make house sandwiches." Surely that would make everything all better...it's worked in the past!  I smiled and mentally patted myself on the back with pride, and thought, "I'm such a good mom, everything will be better in an instant."

And in the beginning, things were off to a great start! Sydney totally got into it, she was thrilled!  "We haven't had those in sooooo long, Mom! Can I help you cut the bread?"

Together we split one sandwich in rectangles and one in triangles and swapped shapes. I set the plates on the table with perfectly toasted, nearly symmetrical house sandwiches equipped with a chimney and a door, bonus! They were cute if I do say so myself, and reminded me of splitting house sandwiches with my sister when we were younger, and having to agree on the same kind of sandwich.  We usually chose chopped olive sandwiches or PB&J--but never mixed together of course.

Did I mention that Colin was still on the floor screaming and crying the whole time? Ever since I started giving him treats for potty training, he thinks he can just have sweets all the time--it's so frustrating! So if food isn't sweet or candy, he thows a fit. Of course I explain the importance of eating food that's good for him.  He often replies, "it's not good for me, Mama."

He used to eat everything.  But then one night someone flipped a switch, and now he doesn't like it if it's slippery, if it's too hot (even when it's already cooled off,) he won't touch any food that is black (except Oreos.)  Truthfully, he doesn't like a lot of anything right now.

The standard response at dinner time has become, "I don't wike it, Mama."
"But You haven't even tried it, Colin."

Oh, and you better not make his toast too brown because that will set him off too. If I serve him French cut green beans he freaks, but yet he gobbles up the "normal" ones..

In fact, the word "normal" is one of his favorites right now.
"I just want "normal" water, Mama."   (meaning no ice.)
"I just want "normal" cereal." (meaning no milk.)
"I just want "normal"shoes." (meaning sneakers not sandals.)
and so on and so forth.

So his fit continues...kicking the floor, dramatic screams, pounding fists...a total classic.  While Sydney sits at the table in 7th heaven with her grilled cheese house.  She even made some adjustments and added a big "picture window" to her sandwich.  She was being so sweet!

Colin would perk up his head every now and then as I snapped a few pictures, and chatted with Sydney.  Slowly he started to come to the table.  

But Sydney said, "Look, Mom, he's coming."

Unfortunately, she spoke too loud and too soon.  He didn't want us to know he was coming. Do your kids do this? So the next time he started to get up and approach the table, I made sign language signs at Sydney instructing her not to notice or say anything. Eventually, Colin made it to the table as if nothing was wrong. He started eating his sandwich...while Sydney and I only dared to watch out of the corner of our eyes.

Once I could see that he was really into his sandwich, I asked him if he wanted me to take some pictures.  "Yes, Mama." he said with a great big smile. I guess, that is the reason why he came to the table, he saw all the extra attention I was giving Sydney with the camera, and he wanted in on the action. After a few snapshots, he was totally cured of his random fit.

Isn't that a sweet picture...almost erases the memories of the fit he was throwing in the living room...

Sigh of relief swept over me.  But it didn't last long...my kids flip flopped on me as I glanced at the clock...

Oh shoot, it's time to get Sydney out the door to preschool!

"Sydney, go get your shoes, sweetie."

"No, you get them, Mom."

"No, Sydney, you are old enough to do this yourself, they are up in your closet."

This went back and forth with the same responses between the two of us four or ten times....then....

"Fine, I'm not going to preschool!"

This was a totally absurd comment coming from her because she LOOOOOOVES preschool. She only said it because she wanted an upper hand in the power struggle about the shoes.  And boy howdy, she stuck to her guns! I tell you what, she is one smart cookie, because her refusal to go, really got to me.

After much reasoning, then frustration, then bribes, then retracted bribes, then saying that I would send Colin in her stead, then starting up the car without her, then faking that I forgot something and running back into the house right in front of her to get it...she still would not get into the van.  So I carried her out to the car kicking and screaming (without her shoes on of course.)

We pulled up to the school and she refused to get out.  I tried coaxing her out, then being firm with her, encouraging her to stop crying because her friends would see, pleading, and begging to no avail. So I finally resorted to carrying her up to the school and handing her off to one of the preschool teachers. Sure, it looked mean doing this, but both the teacher and I agreed that if we let her stay home for throwing a fit, that it might create a pattern. Preschool is expensive and I want to make sure that I get my money's worth...I think I got it yesterday.

So back into the minivan I went wiping the sweat from my brow wondering what I was going to fix myself for lunch...because I'm sick of grilled cheese.  The house sandwiches didn't work on me...now I sound as picky as my kids.

So here's the reality of house sandwiches...
they may make your kids smile and be cute and cooperative, or may make things worse because today they wanted their sandwich cut into rectangles. You will never know unless you try it...go on...see what happens! You might find that everything is just "normal" after their first bite.  And "normal" is good most of the time.

PS... 
I totally love my kids...despite fits and power struggles...and it's a darn good thing that we have good moments in between the tough ones.  So I'm posting my happiest memory from this week, Colin's birthday party...I think I actually captured all my kids smiling! That's because I chose not to show the picture of them scrambling for pinata candy.

Holy Cannoli!

I'm trying to stick with the summer food tradition I started with the kids a couple of weeks ago, and so far, it's working out just fine! We are still having an adventure in the kitchen! We've tried a few more recipes...one of the more interesting ones was the elk meatballs we had last week with fresh spinach and parsley in a sweet and sour sauce...thank goodness they were good, because I froze about 75 plain meatballs. I love having easy meals on hand. Better yet, home cooked ones with a potential to be used in a variety of dishes such as spaghetti, or meatballs in pineapple teriyaki sauce.

This last week, it was my oldest son's turn for picking dessert...and I've come to the conclusion, that my children are fascinated by the pictures of non-traditional dessert recipes because they haven't seen or tasted such food before. Cake, pie and cookies, just don't pique their interest as much as the unusual choices do. My cooking skills will certainly be put to the test this summer keeping things interesting in the kitchen. My son requested that we make cannoli. If you haven't tried cannoli yet, then you need to meander down to a good pastry shop and find these delicious Italian pastries to try for yourself...they are delicious! If you are feeling adventurous...try one of the many recipes found online--I'm not necessarily recommending the way I made them last week...

We started by making the cannoli shells with a rice and whole wheat flour dough. I was just trying to be practical because I didn't have any white flour in the house. I used my wheat grinder to make a flour out of rice and wheat grain (the rice was added to make the whole wheat less heavy.) It worked fine...but would probably taste a little better with the white flour that the recipe called for.

I often improvise on recipes when I don't have all of the ingredients...there's no reason to go to the store when you have similar enough ingredients at home. This philosophy has allowed me to come up with my own variations on recipes that are often better than the original...but as you can imagine, experimentation has also caused me to see plenty of recipe failures as well. I figure it's worth the risk, as some of my favorite recipe ideas have come from this attitude. Unfortunately, this wasn't one of those times. The cannoli shells came out tasting like a cousin of Wheat Thin crackers--they even looked frighteningly similar! Somehow, I don't think that is what the recipe originator intended.

The shells were quickly redeemed when I melted chocolate and drizzled it all over them. Then I sprinkled them with finely chopped pistachios. Not only do most things taste better dipped in chocolate, but they also look prettier as well. So now our recipe stepped up from tasting precisely like Wheat Thins Crackers to tasting like "Chocolate covered Wheat Thins." Everybody say,"oooh" here! LOL. It would really make me feel much better after making crackers by accident.

We made our basic cannoli filling with Ricotta Cheese, powdered sugar, orange zest and vanilla (no substitutions were made here...this is what the Italians do.) I split the basic filling up into sandwich sized ziplock bags then mixed in additional ingredients to create 5 different variations. Anything from pistachio filling, to maraschino cherry, to chocolate chip, then combinations of those additions.

To fill the cannoli, I snipped a corner off of each ziplock creating a mock pastry bag and just "piped" the filling into the center by squeezing the bag. The result...the cannoli shells no longer tasted like chocolate dipped Wheat Thins...they most certainly tasted like cannoli. Everyone was pleased with the result...my son proudly delivered plates of cannoli to his friends and their families for breakfast that morning.

Yup, I did say breakfast. We started making them the day before... intending to eat them after dinner, but they proved to be a little labor intensive, and we were pretty full from dinner already...so once again, we had our dessert for breakfast the next morning. Don't tell Child Protection Services that I've been feeding my kids dessert for breakfast on a regular basis. Surely we will change this habit soon. However, I may have spoken too soon, as I don't know what my daughter has in mind for her dessert choice this week. I'll let you know, but I can bet you one thing...it probably won't be easy as pie.