Larchmont and New Rochelle News / The Rosen Reports

Does anyone else play with their food or is it just me? When I was very young, I would make rivers through my mashed potatoes with the gravy (made from Bisto) , pile the greens around the mashed potatoes and eat a little of that mountain range, then some potatoes and gravy and slowly eat my dinner. I guess I was trying to make it interesting. My mom (mum) would make a variety of vegetables. She always did that, and the meat portion would never be large, but we would have a variety of greens with dinner, and only now do I appreciate how healthy that all was. My mom would also place our dessert dish in front of our dinner plate, and tell us that we could only eat our ‘afters’ until we ate our ‘befores’. as she would call it. I think also that I would play with my food as it wasn’t so tasty? English food has vastly changed now, but when I grew up, English food had a much and well deserved reputation for being bland. I don’t think any longer since we have so many great chefs in England. Although I was rather surprised when I was viewing an older episode of “The Great British Bake Off” and the contestants didn’t know how to make a pizza sauce and topping.

A meat stew would be the meat, water, vegetables. My sister and I would add A1 sauce, and try to change the taste . We would save the dumpling to have as a dessert with jam. I would love to watch my father eat when he came home, He would add the salt and pepper in such a way that it always looked so appetizing. I loved how my older sister would fry potatoes with onions. So tasty. I loved it when my father made roast chicken as it was tastier with that salt and pepper.

If I really liked something- say a certain jam. My mom would give me a spoon and the jar. I soon tired of that jam. Never to eat again. Not sure why she did that but it worked for that food choice. Not sure if that was nice but there you have it. I was always so skinny too (a distant memory!). My mom would give my older sister cod liver oil (yuk), and she would give me malt extract which was delicious. Of course I now take cod liver oil capsules as it is good for lowering blood pressure. So funny how we come full circle.

When my children were younger, I would make food faces . I always thought that if the food looked fun and interesting then they will want to eat it! Perhaps a result of my childhood!

So, from playing with food, evolved into the love of cooking and I would like to think being creative.

Bottom line, it is okay to play with your food! Now that I sell real estate, I try to bring some creativity into marketing my listings!

Westchester is great!