Food, glorious food

Samuel loved his food. He always had a hearty appetite (like his mother), and it went straight to his hips if he ate too much (like his mother). But he had a real appreciation for food.

When he was a baby, I was a pretty rotten cook. I was also a shift worker and we were on a fairly low income (nothing new there!), so he probably didn't have the best of starts food-wise. My version of vegetables would have been frozen peas and corn (maybe), and we ate a lot of junk. Most of the photos from that time include hot chips....

What a terrible mother...

Anyway, I got better at it as time went on, and I realised that I'd actually better pull my finger out and cook nutritious meals EVERY day. Of course, that was when the battles started. Being the young naive parents that we were, we had the 'eat all your dinner or you get nothing else' attitude. It's not so surprising, it's what we were (sort of) brought up on.

I remember lots of arguments about rice. For a long time, Samuel HATED rice, and I cooked it at least twice a week. He would sit there stubbornly for hours, not eating it. He was great at being stubborn! (got it from his mother...and father...oh boy, he was doomed!)

There were a few other things he always refused: tuna (that was OK, I didn't like it much then either), mushrooms (he got that from his mother) and many types of vegetables. He did get better at trying things though. We started a 'you can't say you don't like it until you've tried it' rule, and nine times out of ten, he liked it.

But he really liked his junk. He loved all things chocolate (his nanna didn't help - when he was younger she often made him peanut butter and chocolate chip sandwiches), lollies (he was partial to sours, but would eat any type), chips (Wicked Cheddar Twisties), and all sorts of cakes (especially 'Aunty Sue's' cheesecakes).

He would often spend his pocket money on food - especially when he discovered new things; like the peanut butter M&Ms we found on a trip to Sydney (he bought a couple of $5 packs), and fudge or chocolate covered strawberries when we dragged him to the Bus Depot Markets.

So yes, he did put a little weight on as he got older. He was a little hefty from about 8 years old to 11. He was a growing boy! He loved his steak, and his friend Ryan got him into fish too.
He was trimming right down around the time he died, and looked like he would become quite tall and slim (and gorgeous of course!). He started eating better around the time he got to high school. Lots more vegies and less junk.

But it wasn't only about eating. He liked cooking too. He'd often make these delicious choc-chip biscuits that everyone loved - and that we haven't been able to replicate since - despite having his recipe:

He also really enjoyed food science classes at school, and would often cook us whatever he'd done in class that week. By his last year, he was cooking dinner for us at least once a week, which was really nice. I miss that a lot.