Simple Taste

Last night I made tuna salad for dinner.

When I think back to my childhood, I seem to remember eating a lot of tuna salad. Especially in the summer. This makes sense to me. Tuna salad is easy to make. My mother could make a huge batch earlier in the day, and could pull it out of the fridge at dinner. And who doesn't like tuna?

OK, a lot of people don't like tuna. Including my kids. Not only do they not eat tuna, but they also refuse peanut butter. Even with jam. Even on Ritz crackers. I still have two half opened jars left over from who knows how long ago when they just turned off their liking of it, because up until then, they ate it just fine. I know this sounds odd, coming from a person who hasn't eaten a banana in over thirty years, but it baffles me. I really think the boys studied a list of foods that are easiest to prepare and agreed to dislike the top ten. Nicholas also refuses to eat any kind of cheese except block cheddar. Sliced cheddar apparently looks too much like American cheese for his taste. He doesn't even eat mac'n cheese unless it's drowned in salsa. All other cheeses are taboo.

Unless you count cottage cheese. Because Nick will, in fact, eat cottage cheese, an item which most people think should not even exist. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast, hinting strongly that even chocolate chip pancakes might not be out of the question, he told me he wanted eggs Benedict. I prepared eggs Benedict for my six-year-old. The same six-year-old who, last night at dinner, announced that we haven't had Beef Wellington in the LONGEST TIME.

You know that list of easy to prepare foods? Nick studied the other list, too, and is determined to love everything that messes up half the kitchen.