Sweet Food, Mom!

As a mom, I love to fix meals that my family really enjoys...it's just that it's often a challenge to find all the ingredients/make substitutions, and it takes so long because everything is done from scratch.

A couple weeks ago I worked really hard on making hamburgers, buns, french fries, and salad. It's hard to make a good tasting burger here because there's not enough fat in the beef. Anyway, I did the best I could and was quite pleased with the results. Midway through the meal, David said, "This hamburger tastes burnt." I didn't respond. A few minutes later Tobi said, "Oh yeah, hamburgers aren't very good here because they don't have enough fat." (Now it's ok for me to say that, but not the recipient of my food!) Lily, being a very perceptive 4-year-old, noticed the thunderclouds forming on my brow, and piped up, "Sweet food, Mom!"

So I'm always on a quest for a good, satisfying meal for my family. On Sunday afternoon I was flipping through one of my favorite cookbooks, Taste and See that the Lord is Good by Jane Hunter. I just happened to notice the author's note that she never makes potato salad because she can buy the best potato salad she's ever had from her local deli.

Now that's an idea. I realized that I have never made potato salad for my kids before. Personally, I've never been a big fan of potato salad, so it's not something that I ordinarily think of making. This summer I noticed that Tobi really enjoyed my mom's potato salad so I tucked that away as a note to try it sometime.

Well, I just got a big bag of potatoes from someone who came from their village--this is potato harvesting season--and I had lots of eggs on hand. All I had to do was go out and buy some mayo. I haven't bought mayo for years because it doesn't last long in our electricity-challenged environment.

While I was mixing up the potato salad, my kids wandered through the kitchen, saw what I was doing, grabbed spoons, and started eating out of the mixing bowl! I grabbed plates and served it up. Tobi didn't even sit down at the table; he just plopped himself on the floor and wolfed it down.

No, my kids aren't starving, it's just that they really appreciate it when something tastes really good. As I watched them, I resolved that I would put extra effort into our evening meals this week, but alas, we've only had a couple hours of electricity every day, so I had to resort to leftovers on Monday night or risk losing the food. So much for my good intentions...anyway, let me see what I can come up with for tonight.