January 12th

...my breaking point.

For breakfast, I made delicious Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal, and I mix in honey so it's extra tastey. Seth still stirs in even more brown sugar, but whatever. At least he eats it without whining. Jules also does a pretty good job of just enjoying it. Eric, however, started pouting the moment he came upstairs and saw it. This makes me feel angry. It would be one thing, if it were a foul and disgusting meal I was cooking up, like Scrapple. But this is delightful, honey-filled 7-grain hot cereal, not nearly as disgusting as oatmeal. So this day didn't start off that well, food-wise, between me and Eric.

Dinner was Hamburger Soup. I'll give you the recipe if you want to make it, because it did turn out pretty good. But here's what happened. Eric came home from school and saw that in the crockpot. He instantly started pouting and balking, which of course, makes me extremely defensive. Bud, we've never even tasted this, not one of us. You have to at least TRY it before you start making me feel unhappy with your attitude. Every time he saw it he would try to insist that we'd had it before and that it was terrible. When we sat down to dinner, he put his head down and tried to cover his dish. He sat there eating toast but not the dinner. After Webelos, he knew he was going to have to come home and eat that dinner. Well, at Webelos I guess they were talking about Emergency Preparedness or First Aid or something, because he came home saying how he'd almost fainted, and he'd gotten really pale and cold. So, ok. When you almost faint, is it because of the topic? or is it because you haven't had anything to eat since lunch? Hmmm? So you better get in there and fill your tummy with something warm and delightful.

He went in and sulked and pouted until we made a deal. He's not a baby anymore. Still, this is the deal we made: he would eat 11 bites, because he is turning 11 this year. I estimated that would probably just finish off the whole bowl and that's why I agreed to this deal. He got four bites in, then went to the fridge for a drink of milk. I am convinced that he was more than happy about what he did next, which was to barf the whole thing back up, onto the kitchen floor. He did get the next several heaves into the sink, and he rinsed it down, mostly because seeing yuck makes him ralph, not because he's super-considerate. I sent him away to bed. My rage and disgust were rising in my gut, much the same way the soup and vomit rose in his gut. And so now, with that final insult, I am on strike. I will not make food if you are going to pout and insult me and then vomit it back onto my kitchen floor. You can eat the leftovers from the last two nights' dinners until they are delicious to you. I stayed in my bed this morning and did not make the dinner I had planned out, sausage and scrambled eggs (one of Eric's most favorites). I will not be making dinner tonight, which was planned to be a variation on the Pioneer Woman's Penne alla Betsy, but with sausage instead of shrimp. I will not do any of this, until my demands are met.

Here are my demands, in case you were wondering:

An Apology
No more sulking or balking at food. If I were serving grody food, that would be one thing, but I'm not.
Table manners from the whole family, including sitting on your bottom, holding your utensils like civilized people, and using words like "Please pass.." and "May I..."
Spontaneous thanks and praise for the deliciousness of the food cooked

and
appropriate comments to me, such as You look nice, or You smell nice.

This is not very much to ask. I am confident that my demands will be met. I am serious.

Here is the Hamburger Soup recipe:

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 c. water
28 oz. can tomatoes (undrained)
2 T. beef bouillon or 6 cubes
2 c. frozen hash browns (I just grated up some potatoes)
1 c. frozen peas and carrots
sour cream (optional)

In a crock pot, combine all ingredients except sour cream; mix well. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Stir before serving. Serve with sour cream, if desired. I also added

1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
bay leaf

and I topped it with grated Romano cheese. I'm really digging some Romano cheese lately. Also I would add a smidge less onion, maybe 1/2 cup, and I would grind up the tomatoes in the blender next time, because the chunks really were too large.