Maggie kicked off her spring break with a cinnamon roll nearly as big as her head.
Tag Archives: food
Two Plates, Revisited
Back in February of 2014, I posted Two Plates, a scientific investigation into the culinary cleanliness of Griffin and Maggie. CliffsNotes: Griffin made a gargantuan mess, but Maggie didn’t.
One of the hypotheses of this experiment wasn’t testable until today:
1. Developmental stages. When Maggie is four, she will be just as messy. Was Griffin more fastidious when he was one? Memories are fuzzy and unreliable, but I don’t think so. We can test this in a few years with another set of pictures. (Strawberry shortcake for breakfast, February 15, 2017!)
Admittedly, I technically blew the experiment by serving strawberry shortcake a day early this year (I’m not sure why we had our Valentine’s Day breakfast on the 15th in 2014). But in the spirit of our anti-science (post-science?) times, I present our results anyway.
Exhibit One
February 14, 2017 photo of Maggie’s place setting after her breakfast. Maggie is four years, nine months old.
Exhibit Two
February 14, 2017 photo of Griffin’s place setting after his breakfast. Griffin is seven years, ten months old.
Conclusion
The developmental hypothesis does not appear to hold. Maggie still has the cleaner area, though Griffin’s kept most of his detritus on his plate. (He also ate more, and with more enthusiasm, than she did.) But, clearly, mega-messes are not hardwired into four-year-olds.
I should add, too, that while Griffin still tends to be the messier eater, he is far better at keeping other areas of the house clean. At cleanup time, Maggie suffers from chronic debilitating attacks of exhaustion. Griffin, by contrast, will often tackle cleanup without being asked, rarely complains when we request a cleaning, and is developing a good sense of judgment about what will pass parental inspection.
State Fair 2015
Our annual pilgrimage to the Minnesota State Fair. This year we were all a bit crankier than usual, but that didn’t stop us from staying for nearly 12 hours (and 17,000 steps, according to my trusty fitbit).
Fair food included (basically covering all of our meals today):
- hot waffle ice cream sandwiches (just as good as last year!)
- chicken in waffle cones (another favorite from last year)
- mini-donuts
- strawberry rhubarb milkshake from the dairy barn
- hot dogs and pronto pups (verifying that regular corn dogs beat pronto pups)
- samosas from the midtown global market
- gyros from holy land
- cotton candy
Favorite discovery this year was the play area outside the Eco Experience. Sand + water + building supplies = infinite fun.
We thought we’d kick things off with hot waffle ice cream sandwiches.
Divine.
Seriously.
Puppet show. Kinda weird this time, but the kids enjoyed it.
Ram
Lamb
Rabbits
Piglets
Griffin loves this ride.
Last year he was nervous.
This year he had no qualms.
Maggie on her wheels.
Maggie riding a whale (or something).
Carousel
Carousel
Pilot
Examining the map
Pronto pup
Eco superheroes!
A quieter moment in the agriculture building.
My favorite seed art of the year.
And a close second.
In the skyride
Happy skyrider
As a postscript, in the interest of keeping things real, I should mention that shortly after putting this post together, Griffin puked all over his bed. Besides being gross, it was a good reminder that fair food, though fun, isn’t really what a growing body wants.
(But man, those waffle sandwiches were awesome.)
Asheville
Two nights and lots of fun in Asheville, North Carolina, while visiting our friends, Sue and Chris, and their three dogs, one cat, and six chickens. (Sadly, two chickens were nabbed by a raccoon on our second night, so now there are four, in a newly reinforced coop.)
Asheville has a lot to recommend it and we enjoyed a great tour with Chris while Sue was at work. Naturally, some of my best memories are dominated by food. Had some spectacular barbecue at 12 Bones, which is apparently President Obama’s top choice in town. Then, on our way out, we stopped for breakfast at Biscuit Head, which is in the running for my favorite breakfast restaurant in the world.
Below are an assortment of phone shots from our Asheville stint.
Chicago and Icees
We survived the night, dry and free of unwanted atmospheric voltage. Not a great night’s rest, alas, but we’re thankful for our new, more spacious tent.
Two quotes from our journey thus far:
Monday, 4:30 PM:
Maggie: “Griffin, laugh when I say ‘Chicago.'”
Griffin: “Why do I have to laugh?!”
M: “Chi–Ca–GO!!”
G: <no laughing>
M: “Laugh Griffin!!”
G: “I don’t want to laugh. Chicago!”
M <yelling>: “NO! I want to talk about ME!!!”
G: “Chicago. Chicago. Chicago.”
M <yelling>: “NOOOOOOO!”
Tuesday, 8:30 AM:
Sarah: “Ok guys we’re going to stop here because I need some coffee and Daddy needs to go to the bathroom–”
Griffin: “–and I need an Icee!”
Travail Kitchen and Amusements
Sarah and I spent nearly four hours in food heaven last night. The place is Travail Kitchen and Amusements in Robinsdale, just northwest of Minneapolis. We arrived at 5:45. We had a table at 7:15. We worked our way through a spectacular ten course tasting menu (plus numerous extras). We left, with goofy grins, at 9:35. It was long; it was expensive; we can’t wait to do it again.
They sing and dance; they shout and laugh; they cook unbelievable food; they explain everything; they chat with you and it’s all live — the kitchen is right in front of you. Their cocktails were outrageously good (and so fun to watch them make). The music was loud, eclectic, and perfectly enhanced the festive mood. They transform a weekday dinner into a celebration. This is where all the great chefs go to party, and we were invited along for the ride.
The bar, where we lived for our first hour and a half, was a lively, magical place. I didn’t take this amazing shot, but it captures the mood. The drink is a Ron Burgundy, complete with bourbon, cherries, and smoke.
The kitchen. Note the scrawled white board marker proclaiming, “MAKE GOOD FOOD!!”
High art.
Yes, a gerber spoon. (We also had one course served directly onto our hands with our eyes closed!)
This was one of the appetizers: crispy chicken skin, house-made honey mustard, and compressed watermelon.
This was the gerber spoon course. The bowl was an oyster custard. I don’t remember the rest in detail.
Delectable.
Tortellini flavor bomb.
This wasn’t last night, but it shows some of the magic in action.
Long shot of our board as it was created. This was a dramatic showpiece with the chefs twirling around the room, adding delicacies to the frenetic cadence of “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”
Closeup of our board.
Our final course. (Before dessert.) So, so good.
Dessert. Not including the house made “Twix” bar on a stick. It has forever ruined regular Twix.
The beer boot, making the rounds.
Appropriately absurd finale to a fabulous night out.
Update:Â Travail’s 2013 Â kickstarter page does a great job defining their vision for the dining experience. (They blew past their goal to the tune of an extra $180,000!)
First Ice Cream Truck of 2014
A lovely, warm, Saturday evening, clouds looming with impending rain, the chimes of the ice cream truck arrived at the perfect moment.
(Griffin notes that this wasn’t really the first ice cream truck of 2014; it was the first one where we bought ice cream. )
Poor Turtles!
When Sarah told Griffin that she was eating a “Turtle Bar,” he frowned and asked,
“Is there really a turtle in there??”
(He’s convinced that we are bent on the destruction of turtles; see our recent post about Spicy Turtle Blood.)
Spicy Turtle Blood
We’re a Sriracha family normally, but last night we broke out the regular chili oil thinking it might go better with the delicious Tom Ka Gai that Sarah made (it didn’t).
Griffin reached for the unfamiliar bottle, took one look at the label, and exclaimed,
“What is this?
Spicy turtle blood???”
Two Plates
In the interest of science, I present the following two exhibits.
Exhibit One
February 15, 2014 photo of Maggie’s place setting after her breakfast. Rather than looking at the cute heart plate, observe the clean black tablecloth around the edge. Maggie is 21 months old.
Exhibit Two
February 15, 2014 photo of Griffin’s place setting after his breakfast. Note the tablecloth. Griffin is 4 years, 10 months old.
Additional Data
- The photo of Griffin’s spot was taken after he had already attempted to clean up his area.
- Breakfast menu was identical (strawberry shortcake with crumbly biscuits) except that Maggie declined the strawberries and requested a poached egg. (To my eye, the strawberries and egg had similar properties — slipperiness, difficulty of fork stabbing, etc. — so these data are still valid.)
- Both ate with forks and occasional fingers.
- Both had similar napkins.
- Neither had substantial adult intervention.
- This situation is not an anomaly. Maggie’s area is typically significantly cleaner than Griffin’s, although she has notably inferior control of her fork and other eating tools.
Hypotheses
Competing explanations:
- Developmental stages. When Maggie is four, she will be just as messy. Was Griffin more fastidious when he was one? Memories are fuzzy and unreliable, but I don’t think so. We can test this in a few years with another set of pictures. (Strawberry shortcake for breakfast, February 15, 2017!) Update: See Two Plates, Revisited for the 2017 results.
- Core personalities. Griffin’s gene mix is less inclined toward maintaining a clean environment. (There is some evidence to support this from other arenas.)
- Parenting. Our methods of teaching Griffin and Maggie were somehow different, leading to these divergent results.
- Gender. I’m often skeptical of this, but perhaps there is a gender component.
- As a nod to my years in California, I shouldn’t omit the possibility of planetary influences… Aries vs. Taurus, anyone?
- Or, the Chinese lunar calendar was big in my family, so maybe it’s an Ox vs. Dragon thing!
January 2014
It’s been a very busy month around here so the blog has been neglected. Here are some of the highlights:
- Sarah’s birthday!
- Unbelievably cold weather. I wrote a post about the cold in December, but that was nothing. On January 6, the Governor officially closed all the schools in the state due to the cold for the first time since 1997. That was the first of a string of ultra-cold days. Local public schools have missed five days already this month due to dangerously cold temperatures; these were not snow days. At SPA (my school) we missed only 4 ½ days because we reopened at noon on one of the days. This many lost days is unprecedented in the memories of my veteran colleagues.  We’ve had multiple days where the high temperature was below zero, and wind chills in the Twin Cities have dipped into the -40s. Crazy! With that said, I’m pleased to note that my cold weather gear is handling it marvelously — those ski goggles are getting far more use than usual!
- Sandy’s shoulder surgery. My mom, Sandy, (usually known as “Grummy” around here) had shoulder surgery at the beginning of the month. Recovery looked very good for 24 hours, then very bad for another 24, and a slow but steady recovery since then. I flew out for MLK weekend and had a wonderful visit despite the struggles.
- “Winterupt.” At SPA we’ve launched a new two-week program for 8th graders called Winterupt. (See the announcement letter I wrote to 8th grade families if you’d like more info; it’s a bit PR sounding, but it gives a good overview.) It’s been a ton of work and we’re only half-way through, but the first week has been outstanding. I feel lucky to work with an amazing team of educators who make this whole thing come alive. Today I simply had a blast doing my job. In the course of a few hours this afternoon I got to play with legos, tromp around in the snow with 80 kids (taking measurements and trying to locate hidden rubber ducks), assist students in creating accurate scale sketches of our playground, blast great music, and try to get a cookie from my forehead to my mouth without using my hands (I succeeded, but then had to spit the cookie out because I’m not eating sugar and flour right now, see below).
- Whole30. Sarah and I are almost done with our second Whole30 program. It’s basically 30-days where you don’t eat or drink sugar, grains, dairy or legumes. This is, obviously, a royal pain in the ass, but it’s worth it. We’ve both experienced it a bit differently this time around. Sarah has been less excited about it this year, and is definitely ready for day 30 (next week). I, too, am a bit fatigued by it (I had to spit out an oreo, grrr) but have mostly found it to be far easier than last year. In particular I like how it resets my appetite, makes food more about sustenance than emotional satisfaction, and makes me pay more attention to what I’m eating.
- Escargot! The cafeteria today featured food from France and China (this connects to the language immersion component of Winterupt, and our cafeteria is awesome.) I had never had escargot before, and there it was for the taking. At first I was a bit leery, but then I saw some of my students heading back for seconds. If they could try something new, so could I. Overall impression… not bad. Loved the garlic sauce. Reminded me of shellfish or octopus—the chewy texture. Will definitely try it again some time. (Note that technically this broke some Whole30 rules because I think it was soaked in butter, but trying somewhat legendary cuisine trumped the fine print.)
