We decided to start off the "everyone eats what's for dinner" experiment yesterday with an easy one: grilled cheese sandwiches. There was an "and tomato soup" option available, but we knew going in that that was mostly just for Susie and me. So it was a success, as expected.
Today, a little more challenge: Kalua pork, rice, and corn. David likes all of those, but Lily... we knew she like the corn, and the rice, but the pork was going to be the difficulty. And of course, as soon as she walked in the door she said, "I recognize that smell, and I don't like it." If you've never had kalua pork, it's really simple. Take a cheap pork shoulder, put it in a crock pot with 1/4 cup of liquid smoke, couple tablespoons of salt, and let it go for a few hours. Make sure the lid seals really well (use some foil if you need to. Oh, this wasn't supposed to be a recipe thing... anyway...)
David, not feeling well, sort of picked at his dinner, but we expected that. Still, "no dinner, no snack" is the rule, so no snack for him. Not that he wanted one.
Lily put up surprisingly little resistance to having the pork on her plate. Normally she will push the plate away if something she doesn't like is on it, but today, she just sort of glared at the pork, and started with the corn. I told her she needed to at least try the pork. She picked up the tiniest shred of pork, and looked a question at me. "No," I said, "a TINY one" and grabbed the largest chunk, laughing. She giggled (what?!?) and grabbed a slightly larger piece. I nodded, she ate it. She didn't gag. She didn't even say, "I don't like it." She didn't say she DID like it; it was just clear that she felt she had lived up to her end of the bargain.
Now, I started this thing a while ago, when we were trying to get the kids to try new foods, where I would sing a little fanfare and wave my arms around like crazy in celebration whenever they tried something new. So a few minutes later, Lily looked at me and said, "Um, new food dance?" So I said, "Well, that piece didn't really qualify, try a bigger one. If you do, I'll do an extra special crazy dance."
She didn't even blink. Grabbed a forkful, ate it, looked at me.
So I got up, stood behind her, and danced and waved like an idiot. When I sat down, I told her if she finished all of it, I'd go even crazier. And she started eating. She got about halfway through when she remembered that she "didn't like it," and she stopped eating. But... I'm gonna call this one a victory. And next time, we'll put a little less of the kalua pork on her plate, and let her have the victory of finishing it.
Oh, but, as if to compensate, now she doesn't like rice. Sigh.
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