Dining Out in Tacoma

Dining Out in Tacoma

You may have followed Sue Kidd on Dine Pierce County like my husband and me. We truly appreciated her dedication to the Tacoma dining scene and especially her support of small businesses. Whenever she reported on a delicious-sounding new restaurant in town, I would giddily text it to my husband, who undoubtedly have just read it as well. While we don’t eat out all that often — we have two young kids with the blandest of bland palettes and refusal to take a bite of anything new, not to mention the closure of restaurants for a good period due to covid — we do consider ourselves moderate foodies and enjoy a good cocktail and dinner out whenever possible.

All that said, I was saddened by the recent news of Sue Kidd’s passing. I did not know her personally, but I felt like I knew her over the years of following her restaurant reviews. However, it was heartening to see the pouring of love from the local restaurants for her online — from “Reserved for Sue” signs with a table setting to pouring her a cocktail in tribute.

My tribute to her is carrying her flag and sharing some of my favorite Tacoma restaurants. Let’s all show our support of our small businesses and restaurants just like Sue! And aren’t we all thankful to have a nice meal and gather at a table with friends and family?! Cheers, my friends!

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Recipe Love: One Bowl Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

Recipe Love: One Bowl Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

My son is a picky eater. This really shouldn't have been a surprise for me since most kids are pretty picky eaters. And I'm pretty sure I was a picky eater. I guess I just had it stuck in my head that my son wouldn't be picky because my husband eats practically everything. Like father like son, no? Nope. I feel like I can count on my hands the foods my son will eat consistently. Wait, I think I really can do that...let's see there is yogurt, fruit, breakfast sausage, frozen yogurt (or ice cream), and pouches. Those are consistent, like 99% of the time he'll eat them. But he'll also usually eat peas, pancakes, crackers, chicken nuggets, and toast. That's about it. Did you count those on your hands? Yup. 

Honestly, I feel so defeated feeding him sometimes (who am I kidding, I feel this way all the time). I used to do more experimentation, but I've been let down too many times and I lost hope a bit. I'm really feeling like I need to launch into another effort to introduce and re-introduce some foods, but #tiredmom.

It's especially tough since I love cooking and baking and I get so excited about making things for him. Then he "returns to sender" - aka, spits it back out. At least he tried it, eh? Better than not even putting it in his mouth. 

All that said, I get excited. No, I get ECSTATIC when he eats something new. A few weeks ago I helped host a baby shower for a friend. We had some leftover baby carrots. What to do. Caleb won't eat baby carrots. Then I thought I'd bake them into a muffin and see what happens. I remembered really liking these carrots muffins in the past, so I pulled out the recipe. Guess what? He ate TWO muffins that day. TWO! That's unheard of. That's crazy. Wait, is that my child? But he continued to eat them over the next few days and he enjoyed them. "Mommy, nom nom," he would say. YAY!

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