Domesticated Mama

I just received an email from one of the playgroup listserves I'm on. It's a request to share "toddler recipes" to spice up the little ones' menus.  I barely had time to read it, much less respond. Since then, there have been countless responses from mothers sharing their 3 course menus for their children.  Recipes for  sauteed fishes, vegetable casseroles and fruit compote desserts.  Homemade soups, sauces, tartes.  

My definition of "cooking", especially for Bebe, is transforming meat from an unsafe raw state to one in which it is cooked so that it is safe to eat.   For vegetables, it means softening enough so that she will eat it.  "Cooking" for Bebe involves throwing a sausage in a pan, boiling a pot of pasta or scrambling an egg. To me that constitutes a "cooked" meal.  I don't even prepare three course meals for myself and my husband (he, on the other hand, is a complete foodie and composes a menu in the morning, shops for the required ingredients and serves it with proper plates and utensils).  

I boil water in a pot, throw pasta in it, add some butter, or pesto from a jar (albeit from an Italian specialty shop my husband swears by), all while Bebe is perched on the counter insisting on "helping".