There is still some need for, shall we say, creative parenting<\/em> around the table. \u00a0Here are some of our family secrets with food re-naming:<\/p>\n With my mom, each pancake was a surprise<\/strong>\u2014she used food coloring (who knew it was bad for you back in the days before car seats and bicycle helmets?) to make green \u201cdollar bills\u201d and cartoon character faces.\u00a0 Of course, I liked the money best. \u00a0Today, consider adding beet juice for heart shapes or powdered asparagus or spinach for a pinch of green.<\/p>\n ——————————————————————————–<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just not gravy.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBouncy balls?\u00a0 I LOVE bouncy balls!\u201d I squealed as I discovered that my best friend\u2019s mommy knew how to make my favorite squishy vegetable.\u00a0 \u201cJust whatever you do,\u201d my mother warned her, \u201cdo not call them peas.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n And just as I was a friendly sort of giant<\/strong> in the land of broccoli trees and brussel sprout cabbages, so my children also experience the world in miniature as they nibble baby corn or carrots.<\/p>\n As it turns out, I come from a long line of Food Adventurists<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And as for the beans\u2014my grandfather drew a picture of a campfire and set it upright in the living room floor.<\/strong>\u00a0 The children sat around the fire to eat the beans, telling cowboy stories and spinning yarns.\u00a0 My mother, as young as five during those times, remembers that cornbread as though it was a love letter written by her father, and those campfire beans as though they were prepared on a family vacation.<\/p>\n Be sure to share your family’s food names below!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My mother was a veritable food re-naming artist, and she was rather creative with presentation too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[503],"tags":[358,509],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Food-Semantics-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fvks-fC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/crepe-batter-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"It's](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Its-all-gravy-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>I hated gravy then and I still do now.\u00a0 But then again, my mother usually served \u201cwhite sauce\u201d or even \u201cbrown sauce\u201d<\/strong> and ironically, I still enjoy both.\u00a0 I also like a little roux now and again.<\/p>\n![\"Tigger](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/media\/Blog_Photos_2012\/rotini.jpg\" "\\"Tigger")
My children enjoy \u201cpirate stew\u201d<\/strong> and \u201ccowboy pie\u201d<\/strong> on occasion, and who wants to eat Rotini pasta when you can eat Tigger Tails<\/strong>?<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/media\/wysiwyg\/blog2012\/PantryParatusPhotos\/Cornbread.jpg\")
<\/a>My grandparents were extremely poor, having eloped at 16 years of age.\u00a0 Both of my grandparents had to work full time just so that the family could meet the rent payment, and on many late nights it would be up to Grandpa to care for the children.\u00a0 As poor families know all too well, beans and cornbread are sometimes eaten three, even four times within a single week.\u00a0 My grandfather would write my mother\u2019s name in her cornbread<\/strong> with food coloring so that she would at least eat her name, if nothing else.<\/p>\nWhat will be your next food adventure?<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
![\"Food](\"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Food-Semantics--300x169.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPhoto Credits: \r\n\r\nCanned peas<\/a>\r\nTigger Tails<\/a><\/pre>\n
<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"