Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
Let the games begin!
Around this house, with a three-year-old who only stops moving when he’s sleeping, games are very active. The dude runs almost constantly; if he’s not running, he’s probably riding his balance bicycle or inside bike instead. I’m surprised we haven’t yet worn a groove in a track surrounding the dining room table with how often we run around and around and around it. Benson can’t wait for Kiah to get big enough to chase him.
Of course we have the normal games, too, like Hide and Seek, and we’ve been on a Memory kick recently. There are plenty that we’ve gradually made our own little things, often in response to some dysregulation: like giving tight squeezes to fill up him up with Mommy’s love when nothing else is right or pretending that we can’t reach each other when he’s being especially whiny (purely a hypothetical situation, of course).
When the cousins are here, the games take on their own particular spin. Don’t Touch the Benson is an oldie but a goodie: you can guess the goal. I didn’t know how to spell Mech Suit until today when I asked what it actually meant (a mechanical suit that makes you as strong as a giant robot?), but I know it involves my son getting hoisted up by a cousin and being jumped around the house in mighty leaps. The table circuit appears again in Drift Tractor, a game I’m so glad the cousins do because I can handle pushing Benson only a couple tire-screeching circles before getting immensely dizzy.
I’m assuming there will be some new flairs to our games in the coming weeks, thanks to the Games. The Paris Olympics has a bit more equipment available (not to mention talent), but I’m sure some volleyball, archery, and fencing themes will easily find their way into the activities.
Shoot, we already have sprints all the time, and I’m fairly certain I saw a game of rugby being played in the living room earlier.
We never just have the TV on, but the Olympics are a special case, so I have them playing quietly in the background while I type. It’s gymnastics right now, one of my favorites to watch, and we just saw a few of the women on the Brazilian team compete. Benson paid attention to a balance beam routine, then commented very nonchalantly, “I can do that, sometimes.”
Good luck, pal, I can’t even do a cartwheel so I don’t expect you to have gotten any gymnastic genes from me. I’m not sure your daddy can touch his toes, so yeah no help there either.
While I can’t help with the physical prowess side of things, I can try and do my part from the kitchen. Thanks to my parents’ globally interested palates, I grew up eating dishes from around the world; usually ones we made and usually out of one particular cookbook. I grabbed that cookbook off the shelf earlier this week, in search of an international meal that would suit my needs that day: one-pot, make-ahead, and at least somewhat “normal” for the less adventurous cousins I would also be feeding. Appropriately for all this amazing gymnastics I’m seeing, I settled on a casserole from Brazil. I thought it was very good, although not quite as impressive as the team’s tumbling.
Our menus and our games will continue to be influenced by the Olympics for a bit, and I’ll continue enjoying Benson confidently assuming his somersault was as impressive as the floor routines.
Brazilian Mashed Potato and Meat Pie [Nhoques de Forno]
This dish is both so recognizable — hello meat and potatoes — and also so different. I’ve never added flour or baking powder to mashed potatoes except to make gnocchi, which this is not at all…although the translation from Portuguese does mean “oven gnocchi” so there’s that. The two layers of different meats is unusual but fun. The cookbook I reference is called Extending the Table; get one.
Prep tips: Like I said, I thought the flavors were great, but Brian was jaded by the small amount of meats called for, so just add more if you want to make it more substantial.
4 cups warm mashed potatoes (nothing added yet)
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
½ cup shredded cheese of choice
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
thin slices of ham and mozzarella
½ pound browned ground beef/sausage
2 cups pureed fresh tomatoes
pinches of salt, sugar, and pepper
Add the milk, butter, eggs, cheese, flour, salt, and baking powder to the potatoes; mashing and stirring well until smooth. Layer half into a 9×13” pan. Cover with two layers of the slices of ham and mozz, then spread on the remaining potatoes. Heat beef and tomatoes with seasoning, simmering for a few minutes; then pour over the top of the potatoes. Bake at 300° for 40 minutes.
