One of the tricky parts about moving to India had to be overcoming Goose’s hesitance to try new or exciting foods. She is very much our “wonder bread and kraft singles” gal, even though she has never actually eaten them*. After a very rocky start, we are slowly and steadily making progress. She is even starting to eat some spice, which excites us greatly. There are some foods that just need some spice, and I look forward to one day being able to use chilies again!

Of all the things that she has had aversion to here, thee most absurd is paneer. We all LOVE paneer, including Goose. She was more than happy to eat it in Ottawa, but would not go near it once we moved here. We’ve been baffled, but have managed to work on her bit by bit. She is now eating it, but not without coaxing and assurances that it is EXCATLY THE SAME as what I make in Ottawa. If she tastes it without this assurance she won’t eat it, so I have to remember. As much as I really want to tell her that she just needs to eat the food I make, I know that this is as much her testing her boundaries as it is trying to adjust to life in India. So I meet her in the middle.

I have taken to adding paneer to lasagne, as I can’t find what Canadians call cottage cheese and am not a huge fan of ricotta. The fact that paneer is roughly one 1/6 the cost of the imported ricotta also factors in. The paneer doesn’t replace cottage cheese, but adds a neat texture and taste dimension to the lasagne, so it works for us. It did work for us until Goose told us this week that she doesn’t eat lasagne because it has paneer in it. I thought about it for a minute and did the only thing I could do. I told her I would use cottage cheese. Cottage cheese, you see, is what paneer is also called here. She was happy, and ate her lasagne. There was no cajoling, and no lying involved, so I am calling it a win.

Woo knows it was paneer in his lasagne. He misses cottage cheese and now wants to know where his is. I can’t deliver on that, but he keeps asking.

…you lose some.

*OK, had never eaten them before we moved here. A mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do when she doesn’t know where to buy real cheese and safe bread!