rosy cheeked

I am trying to enjoy these days where the boys are relatively adventurous about trying new foods, since I know the days of only-toast and nothing-but-bananas are ahead of us. I've managed to get them to love kale, and we kept getting these luscious bunches of beets in our CSA box. My dirty secret? I really don't want to clean up the aftermath of eating beets. As an adult I can barely make it through a salad that has beets in it without getting stained fingers and possibly something on my shirt. I was not looking forward to people thinking I was some freaky Twilight fan who tried to get her babies to look like vampires.

So...I got creative. I roasted a big mess (literally) of beets and pureed them. Then when Charlie made a batch of waffles I had him reserve half of the batter and add a bunch of beets to it. The result was something that looked like it could be crowned with the title "Martha Stewart's Red Velvet Waffles." These things were gorgeous! Intense purple red. And the boys saw waffles and they hoovered them up. They actually tasted quite good, just not the sort of waffles you'd have with butter and syrup. There will be some experimentation in the future with adult Red Velvet Waffles, perhaps with some poached eggs on top and goat cheese.

But for now, mission accomplished. The boys ate a bunch of beets and the only thing left in the end were smiles.

To illustrate, here is Liam displaying his free-form sign language. He does one thing: when he wants more of something, he uses his right hand to whap-whap-whap against the table top. It is usually rather gentle but if I'm not paying enough attention it turns into slams. Dash, on the other hand, signals his desire by raising both hands in the air and opening and closing his fists like an eager crab.




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Images from Italy:
As with many trips, Charlie and I spent our free time playing cribbage. Bliss!