Eat Fruit, Not Candy

Tashkent is full of sun and heat; bazaars are bursting with cherries, raspberries, apricots and small semi-wild mountain apples.

These days I am trying to teach my daughter to eat more fruit and less candies, explaining to her how fruit are useful and healthy and good for our skin, hair and overall well-being.

She is not the worst audience; she nods and diligently eats whatever green or red goodness I give her. As for industrial sweets, I just stopped buying them. I need to limit my own consumption, too - it is never too late. And, strangely, I have noticed long ago that the less sweets I eat, the less I want them - as if I am cleaning myself of their presence in my body and it stops calling for more.

Madina loves traditional Uzbek pottery and always demands that I serve fruit "in that beautiful sea-like bowl". I agree with her: the bowl is indeed lovely. Traditional Rishtan pottery (made in Rishtan valley, Ferghana Valley, Uzbekistan) is beautiful. I love the rich colors and tribal feel.

I have a big serving plate which is also made in Rishtan: it is perfect for watermelons or melons. In the meantime, we used to serve the first melon we bought this season - a small and fragrant "cantaloupe" melon.

"Mama, why is the melon so small? Is it because this is a baby melon?" - "No, the melon is ripe and delicious; this is just... just a smaller breed of melons. Called "cantaloupe". And then in the autumn we will have huge melons, like spaceships...". I told her that cantaloupe contained a lot of A and C vitamins essential for our functions such as eyesight and immune response ("you do want your body to be able to resist nasty microbes, do not you?", and we ate the delicious slices feeling like doing the right thing.

I hope I succeed in my cold war against refined sweets: I just need to persevere and refrain from buying them. I am also looking for simple recipes of home made sweets without sugar (or at least with a small amount of unrefined sugar), and will appreciate if you share some.