Wine Pairings For The Lovingly Prepared Meals My Toddler Won't Eat
My dinner often consists of what my kid leaves on her plate. Why not fancy it up with wine, as a treat?
Successfully feeding my 1 ½ year old daughter dinner is a little bit like trying to see the hidden item in a Magic Eye poster– in order to succeed, I must relax my focus, be present but not involved, and be prepared to walk away if it doesn’t work within about 30 seconds. Frustration is my enemy. Deep breaths help. There must be a zen parable about this approach, although it doesn’t always work.
Nor does it always work to feed her foods that I think she’ll enjoy. Some days, she loves the spaghetti and meatballs from Little Spoon. Some days, she looks as me as though she’s offended I’d even suggest she eat noodles of any kind. Some days she loves using her little eating utensils. Other days they are merely tools to help her develop her throwing skills, and her food goes all over her face and into her hair and, somehow, her ears. Her limited vocabulary means she can’t be specific about what she wants, beyond asking for “more”-- which could mean any food at all, just, food in general– or “cracker”-- which could mean any sort of dry snack at all– or “juice,”-- which, blessedly, means juice.
As a result, after she’s signaled that she’s “all done” with dinner, either by saying “all done!” or attempting to yeet her plate, I bathe her, dress her in her pajamas, cuddle and read to her, put her down for bed, and return to a dining room table containing a nearly-full plate of a lovingly prepared meal that’s only going to go to waste if I don’t eat it.
The other week as I poured myself a glass of sauvignon blanc to enjoy alongside a barely touched plate of shelled edamame and chicken nuggets, it occurred to me that I could make this exercise a slightly fancy one if I put a little more thought into my wine selection. I’ve mentioned before that I’m trying to be more “intentional” with drinking– which means that when I drink something, ideally it should be guided by enjoyment. Customized wine selections for half-eaten toddler food is a great way to make what would normally be a Sad Mom Moment into a Fancy Sad Mom Moment.
In that spirit, I enlisted the help of one of my favorite wine enjoyers, Caroline Reston. Caroline also happens to be the senior producer on my podcast Hysteria, which we’ve worked on together for more than four years. In fact, one of my earliest memories with Caroline was sitting in my first apartment in Los Angeles and drinking wine as my cat walked around on the dining room table. Caroline knows wine. It’s her hobby, it’s her passion, it’s her lifestyle. The pairing suggestions and descriptions are hers.