Still. Too. Fancy.

Signs that the lunch you make for school is too fancy?

• the word "confit" is part of lunch
• your child suggests that a cranberry relish would match better to the lunch meat than the (I cannot believe I'm going to admit I made a relish just for a school lunch, but... I did. I did) pomegranate that was on it
• your child says "I saw someone eating a ham sandwich. It was just... ham. And bread." As if it's amazing someone could eat something so plain. And yes, I did think: oh, you twerp.
• the other children at school pay your child treats on a daily basis for a future share of one of their favorite meals (my boy has really cashed in on this. Curly, not so much - lunch trading is a lot more fraught when you have a deathly food allergy)

I have created my own problem here. Nobody made me do it. But today really made me realize that you have to admit there is a problem to address it. I sent duck confit sliders with a slaw and pomegranate relish. Yeah. I know.

I just... I didn't quite realize the lengths I would go to in order to get my skinny, skinny boy to eat lunch at school. Until I was standing in my kitchen this morning, shredding hot duck confit and talking to the kids about tomorrow's lunch (vietnamese chicken salad or grilled lamb sandwiches with tzatziki). And then I realized that somehow, Alice Waters had sunk her crazy fancy school lunch notions into me but good.