Deep Fried in Chocolate Sauce

You know, there's an episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry catches Newman bringing forbidden chicken up to Kramer, . . . and the way Jerry finds out is by making Newman eat broccoli. "You wouldn't eat broccoli if it were deep fried in chocolate sauce!" Jerry says, as Newman belts out, "Vile Weed!!!" Well, there's Annie for you. For months now I have been struggling to get Annie to eat vegetables, . . . ANY vegetables. There was a point where I don't think she'd had vegetables in WEEKS. Anyway, I've found some secrets (which turned out not to be so simple as butter). First, I fill Annie's sippy cups half full of carrot puree and half full of cranberry juice. She has no idea. (And, actually, I tried it. It's almost impossible to tell.) Second, turns out that both asparagus and broccoli are slurped right up as long as they're swimming in chocolate sauce, . . . I mean hollandaise sauce (which isn't much better anyway). So tonight I filled two ice cube trays: one of carrot puree and one of hollandaise sauce. Pop out a cube, and we're in business. : ) Ah, for the day when I can MAKE Annie eat her vegetables. ("Leia Rose, you only get a piece of bread when you eat five more bites of meat and the rest of your raw broccoli." Poor Leia. At least Leia generally likes veggies.) A few weeks ago I remember Laura telling me about a book revealing ingenious ways to hide vegetables. Guess I got to go buy that one, Laura. *sigh* ; )

As for the rest of the day, not much to report. Leia, Annie and I continued making Dinosaur Salad today with "berries" and "colorful leaves." I suction-cupped Annie to the counter while I was making dinner, and Leia joined the ranks in front of the microwave and the girls had a blast with Annie's old bucket-o-toys.

Just as a last aside, Leia Rose is finding the novel Babe absolutely hilarious. And, I'll admit, I LOVE doing the voice of the sheep. : ) Tonight, Leia literally fell on the floor when the sheep named Ma yelled out, "No manners! No manners! No ma-a-a-a-a-a-a-ners!" She always wants me to tell her where that is on the page, . . . and then read it again. Turns out that moments like that are more important to her than the pictures. : ) It's so great to see her get so much enjoyment out of books!