My Little Gordon Ramsay

A few nights ago, I planned to bang out dinner and a blog post while I was at it. The kids waited (im)patiently as I photographed their dinner from 12 different angles. Done, I thought. I'll post the recipe tonight after the kids go to bed.

Unfortunately, dinner didn't have that WOW factor you want in a recipe.

"I'll have to redo this, with some tweaks," I said, after a few bites.

My 5 year old son was a little less forgiving.

"You should do the OPPOSITE of what you did on this dinner."

Ouch.

My son often critiques his meals. We get a daily report card on his lunch. A half sandwich and orange slices don't made the grade. There has to be something special, another layer, to make it memorable. Some fruit leather, or an item not in the usual rotation, like the homemade chicken nuggets I packed today.

Don't get me wrong, he gives us plenty of thumbs ups and "best dinner EVER!" comments. Nor is he what I would call a picky eater. Compared to kids his age, his pallet is wide. You should see him scarf down eel at the sushi bar.

He's discerning, though. He can tell if the cooks at our restaurant put too much pepper in the mac-n-cheese...and he'll tattle on them. He knows when I've tried to sneak in zucchini in the marinara sauce, a vegetable not on his approved list. Overall, the kid's pallet is good. And when he says dinner doesn't cut the mustard, well, he's usually right.

My own little Gordon Ramsay.

So it's back to the drawing board. I'll let you know when I've worked out the kinks, so to speak.