Monday, April 20, 2009

A Veggie Tale


I was thinking about my kids being picky veggie eaters tonight and remembered this story:
As a child I remember sitting at the dinner table staring at one brussel sprout. Just staring. Wishing it away. My mom had a "try it, you might like it rule," so I had to take it. My dad had a "if you take it you have to have at least one bite before pushing it to the side of your plate" rule. So here I sat staring down on my plate wondering why I was so polite that I took the brussel sprout in the first place and plotting how to get rid of the distgusting object without actually putting it in my mouth. Everyone else had long ago finished their supper and had moved on to family activities, and here I still sat, in the kitchen, in the dark. I never did eat that brussel sprout. I hid it in the garbage can when I thought no one was looking and ran uptairs to my bedroom before they could check my plate. Wouldn't you know it 20 years later I married a man who believes that Christmas dinner is not complete without brussel sprouts.

5 comments:

Coleens Recipes said...

How funny and ironic that you married a brussel sprout eater. When I was a child, a million years ago, if you didn't eat your dinner, you had to have the uneated thing again for breakfast, so your folks rules sound pretty good to me LOL.

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

What a cute story. As picky as I was as a child I loved spinach and brussels sprouts. I can't remember the last time I made brussel sprouts either.

Heidi said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE brussel spouts! As a kid my mom would let us each pick the veggie we wanted for supper. The rule was that everyone (I was an only child so this was just me and my parents) had to take at least I bite. My mom hated spinach night, but when dad picked it we all ate our bite without complaining. To this day I'm still a huge veggie fan.

teresa said...

What a cute story! I remember hiding food that i didn't want to eat too, mom was never too happy to find it stuffed in a corner days later!

Cyndi said...

I remember my mom's "pear salad" - a pear half on a lettuce leaf, with a dollop of Miracle Whip in the center hole, topped with a little shredded cheese. (It's a Texas thing, I guess.) I made it to 9:00 pm before I finally caved and ate it. Didn't eat pears again until a couple of years ago - 45 years later. Love your story. I got lucky and not only do I love Brussels sprouts, my kids do too - they used to count them out to make sure everyone got the same amount, and fought over the uneven number.