Mommy's Helper, a photo by here we wander on Flickr.
A little bit, anyway.
Last weekend, Uncle Brian was nice enough to pick up some tasty fresh vegetables for us at the local farmer's market. He gets up early, and we, sadly, do not. So he brought us some fresh green beans and fresh corn on the cob from the market, along with some tasty samples from his own back yard garden - tomatoes, banana peppers, cucumbers and a host of spices (fresh bruschetta, anyone?).
Today I decided to break out a few of the fresh veggies for dinner. Connor, as always, was excited to help in the kitchen. We got most of the stuff ready just after lunch, so it would be ready in time for our dinner tonight. I started out by making some good, Southern "refrigerator pickles" with the cucumbers. I did the dicing, and Connor put them all into the bowl. Next up was green beans. We rinsed them all off with cold water, then got them ready to simmer all day. Connor helped me "break" them, getting rid of the ends and putting the bite-size pieces into the pot. We added some bacon grease (of course) and some onion before covering them with water and putting them on the stove. Last was the corn, but we left it until about an hour out. Connor helped me "shuck" it over the trash can (it was still pretty messy with my little helper).
Connor tried everything. He kept telling me how good the "farmer's market corn" was every few bites. He ate four pieces (they were halved, so two full ears of corn). Clearly he liked it. The extra butter and salt probably helped. He even ate most of his green beans, though he's not generally a fan of them. He tried one of the chilled cucumber slices, and even ate the whole thing, but it was clearly not his favorite. He didn't want seconds.
The twins, of course, would touch none of it. It was unfamiliar and therefore unacceptable. Xander wouldn't even try the green bean, and it's normally one of the only vegetables he will eat. He looked at the corn on the cob (corn is usually his favorite vegetable), but wouldn't eat it off the cob. He had a healthy dinner of applesauce, grapes and popcorn (don't ask, he always wants popcorn for some reason).
And Sawyer, the stinker, slept through dinner. This does not bode well for going to bed tonight, or getting up tomorrow. It certainly does not bode well for our upcoming trip (think fourteen hours in a car) tomorrow night. Like I said, stinker.
So that was our foray into fresh eating. Connor and I enjoyed it. Xander passed, and Sawyer didn't even know anything about it. Unfortunately Daddy missed out. He's working at the fire station today, and since we're leaving tomorrow, we couldn't wait for him to get home to sample the goodies. We did, however, leave him plenty to fix for himself while we're gone.