IT'S A MATTER OF TASTE

I am not the most adventurous of eaters. If I like something, I like it. If I don't, no attempt to get me to eat it will be successful. I am sensitive to food smells.  Certain spices make me feel queasy. I don't generally like mixing textures. For years I'd eat brownies only if without nuts or ice cream without added chunks or candies, and pizza without additional toppings. I like my meats on the rare side and usually grilled. I like Italian food and vegetables. I love bread and butter and cheese.

But my kids had different palettes. They liked meats cooked to medium. They would add ketchup to things I would normally choose to eat with mustard. They would add hot peppers and hot sauces to dishes I preferred with mild seasoning. One liked pepperoni on her pizza and the other daughter hot dogs in her mac n' cheese.

Over the years, while I cooked things more simply, I would provide hot sauces, condiments and additional ingredients  on the side for them to add to their food. Now that they cook for themselves, they have shelves of spices and sauces I wouldn't dream of even trying. LOL

I assume that their sense of taste and preferences is a genetic predisposition. They certainly didn’t pick it up from me. Nature vs. Nurture - amazing.

Kathy Ann Brodsky, LCSW is a New York and New Jersey licensed social worker, adoptive mom and advocate for ethical adoption practice. Through her private practice and agency affiliations, she has prepared thousands of adoption homestudies, counseled expectant, birth, pre/post adoptive parents and adopted persons, as well as trained professionals to work with adoptive families. She was Director of the Ametz Adoption Program of JCCA and a member of the Advisory Board for POV’s Adoption Series and is currently a member of the Adoption Advisory Board of Path2Parenthood and active in the Adoptive Parents Committee in New York. Her blogs and written contributions can be seen throughout the Internet, including her BLOG and as Head Writer for ADOPTION.NET  She was named an “Angel in Adoption” by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption in 2001. You can reach her directly at EMAIL