Here comes the disclaimer:
I don't actually make my kids eat stuff. I encourage them. Coerce and cajole, if you will. I trick them and bribe them. But I don't make them eat anything they don't really want to eat. Sometimes they just don't know that they actually do want to eat it; they just think they don't.
I spent my first twenty-one years in the US before meeting my husband and moving to Sweden. That is about when my interest in cooking and baking developed. I had to figure out what the heck I was going to eat in this foreign country with none of the pre-fabs I knew and loved.
My two kids are actually what my Grandma would have called "good eaters" as far as kids go. Daycare staff are shocked and amazed by the amount of food the two of them have been able to consume. Plus, they eat stuff many other little Swedish kids don't, and probably stuff other little American kids don't.
The big one ate taco sauce and Thai Sweet Chili sauce with a spoon as a baby. She likes spicy and flavorful, and will try anything at least once. However, since starting school, she seems to think that school lunch is far superior to anything her parents can produce in the kitchen. Go figure. The almost-toddler seems to be a carnivore at times, but is generally open-minded about food as well. Her favorite activity is going to the pantry and pointing while saying "Googie". "Googie" is a multi-functional word, but seems to signify something edible.
They get this from their father. Well, the eating part, not the Googie part. The man would make an excellent contestant on the TV show Fear Factor. He will eat anything. He never complains either, but has on a rare occasion said "You don't need to make this again", usually in reference to meals containing soy sauce. Most of the time he happily eats what I make and compliments the chef. His biggest criticism has been that I make up or change recipes - "a little of this, and how about a little of that" - and then don't know how to recreate it when it is fabulous.
Thus, the purpose of this blog. I'm not writing a blog to show that I am Foodier-than-thou. I simply have no idea what I toss in to things that end up delicious (or at least edible), and need to document it in a way that isn't full of random food stains or grease spots like most of my recipes. That, and the fact that I have no organizational skills.
