Bena Mae’s Kitchen: Just Venting

I don’t mean to sound preachy, but I need to get something off my chest.
People of my generation will remember a time when it was unheard of to talk back to our parents. We might have disagreed with them, but never verbally or we might have found ourselves waking up in the next county. Honor they father and thy mother or thy days may NOT be long was our version of the Fifth Commandment. Literally.
But I’ve seen the disintegration of this cardinal rule over the years and it disturbs me.  I cite as an example:
The lack of respect shown to some parents by their offspring.
The other night I was surfing the channel and clicked on TLC, The Learning Channel.  The channel is usually known for its educational programs–cooking, medical mysteries, and the like. But this night was different. It was showing a beauty pageant for little tots called “Toddlers and Tiaras.”
Watching the outrageous antics of the mothers while their child was onstage increased my morbid curiosity, so I decided to stay with it, growing more uncomfortable as the show went on. I watched as a three- year-old pranced across the stage, dressed up as Lady Gaga and looking straight out of a Las Vegas night club chorus with glued on false eyelashes, spray tanned from head to toe, bouffant hairdo that weighed a ton and wearing a skimpy outfit that was suggestive and sexy. This was exploitation to the max.  What was the mother thinking?
This example was followed by every contestant, with parents coercing and threatening each child to perform perfectly. One father told his young daughter, “Smile at me when you’re onstage and I’ll give you a hundred dollars!” One mother stated that she only wanted a daughter so she could enter her in pageants. Department of Child Services, are you listening?
The foregoing is bad enough, but the point I want to make is the way the children talked to their parents. One little diva was particularly nasty and was never reprimanded by her mother or father. It was as though they were afraid of the child. Had it ever occurred to them that good manners are more important than beauty. But they listened and smiled and cajoled as the little girl ordered them to “get out of her room, shut up, you stink, I said do it NOW!” I wanted five minutes alone with that child. And a lot longer with the parents.
This pageant would do well to encourage other things than fake plastic beauty. Children are beautiful without the embellishments forced upon them by parents who are living their own lost dreams through their children. And they fool nobody when they say the pageants are the daughters’ idea.   
The bottom line is this: It’s the kids who will suffer when they grow up and face the real world and find out it’s not a beauty pageant. Parents are doing them a disservice by taking their childhood away.
Just venting.  Thanks for listening.

Young chefs love helping to shape these cheese-filled meatballs.

Mini Meatball Sliders
From: Kellogg’s

2 tablespoons  vegetable oil
1   egg, slightly beaten
2 cups  Kellogg’s® Rice Krispies® cereal
1/4 teaspoon  salt
1/4 teaspoon  pepper
1/4 teaspoon  onion powder
1 pound  lean ground beef
2 sticks (1 oz. each)  mozzarella string cheese, cut into 12 bite-sized pieces
12   small dinner rolls, split horizontally and toasted
  Ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomato slices, pickles and/or relish (optional)

Line 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking pan with foil. Pour oil into pan. Tilt pan to coat bottom with oil. Set aside.
In large bowl combine egg, KELLOGG’S RICE KRISPIES cereal, salt, pepper and onion powder. Add ground beef; mix well. Divide into 12 equal portions. Shape into large meatballs.
Place meatballs on prepared pan. Push one cheese piece into center of each meatball, reshaping meatball to completely enclose cheese. Roll meatball to cover all sides with oil.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Serve meatballs in rolls. Top with ketchup (if desired).