Max, Trisha, and Amelie, Kensington, CA

 

How many people does your fridge need to feed? 
Max: Three, plus two dogs.

What do you usually eat for breakfast?
Trisha: Coffee.
Max: Oatmeal.
Amelie: Oatmeal.

Is there anything you eat every day? 
Amelie: Peanut butter. I love peanut butter. And Peanut Butter Yum Yums.
Trisha: Don’t you mean “Peanut Butter Fatten Amelie Bars?”
Amelie: They are made of: peanut butter, of course, Nutella, oats, coconut shreds, chocolate chips, and broken up pretzels. Max: I eat oatmeal almost everyday.

Every week?
Max: I drink coconut water every week.
Trisha: I’m a pretty varied cook. But I do love popsicles. I’m a popsicle fanatic.

Max, Trisha, Amelie IMG_8440 FR DR 2

What item are you forbidden from purchasing right now?
Amelie: We never buy milk because I’m milk intolerant.
Trisha: And Max is, too.

What’s the most delicious thing in here?
Trisha: Fresh blueberries.
Amelie: Popsicles!
Trisha: Amelie loves the strawberry flavor; my favorite is tangerine.
Max: I’ve got to say the fruit.
Trisha: That’s the thing about California. When we go back to my parents’ house in the Midwest, even when we buy the most beautiful-looking fruit, it has no flavor compared to here.

The most disgusting?
Max: The raw dog food. We have the dogs on a carnivorous diet.
Trisha: A raw food diet. A raw meat food diet. It’s what dogs should eat. They’re extremely healthy. When we got them and changed their diet, they lost weight and got renewed energy. When we first got them Amelie was disappointed. She was like, “they don’t play!” But it’s because they were so fat and had no energy.
Amelie: Cheese is the most disgusting thing. I hate cheese.
Trisha: This is a new development, by the way. When she was a baby the gourmet cheese shop that was a block away from our house had her name in their book with a list of all her favorite cheeses, and the guys that worked there thought she was the most amazing baby because she loved these crazy, super-potent cheeses.

The oldest?
Trisha: I think it’s the preserved lemons that I don’t know what to do with. Or white miso.

Anything you regret buying?
Max: Fish oil! We had an accident. It got into our laundry…
Trisha: It ruined my two favorite summer dresses, my favorite summer skirt, Amelie’s favorite shirt, and all these awesome new t-shirts I’d bought for Max. How it got in there is a mystery. Maybe there was a capsule in somebody’s clothing or in a napkin. It was disgusting opening the dryer door to a huge wave fish oil.
Max: We did everything we could to get the smell out the clothes and nothing worked.
Trisha: I had the clothes in a garbage bag. Tuesday night is when our trash goes out; Tuesday afternoon a friend asked if we had tried baking soda. So now I have my favorite skirt on the back porch covered with baking soda.

What's your guilty pleasure?
Trisha: Nutella. Mint chocoloate chip Baskin Robbins ice cream. Only Baskin Robbins brand.
Amelie: For my second breakfast today I had two marshmallows with a little bit of chocolate, then one square of really small chocolate, and then one and three-quarters Oreos.

Where do you do most of your food shopping?
Trisha: Berkeley Bowl, Whole Foods, Monterey Market.

How often do you go grocery shopping?
Trisha: Three times a week. Amelie: Really? Three times a week?

What percentage of your meals do you prepare at home?
Trisha: 80%–85%.

How much do you spend on groceries each week?
Trisha: A lot: $200–$250.

Is there anything in here that we would have found in your childhood fridge?
Max: There were a lot of things in our refrigerator then that aren’t in ours—milk, orange juice, butter. Maybe Brussels sprouts and green beans. Mom loved Brussels sprouts.

What do you wish you had in here?
Amelie: Peanut Butter Yum Yums.
Trisha: Strawberries.

Max is an actuary and he’s holding a bottle of coconut water. Trisha is a psychotherapist who is currently a homemaker. She’s holding a bowl of blueberries. Amelie will be in the fifth grade and she’s enjoying a popsicle. They live in Kensington, California.