Eclectic Echoes

Monday I baked bread and made manicotti for dinner. Since I wanted to use the Swiss chard before it went bad, I made that our side dish. I have a great recipe with garlic, lemon juice, capers, and tomatoes. Johann requested more garlic and less lemon juice, so I changed the recipe and thought he would like it. He ate it fine that night.

Well, he doesn’t like it as much as I would like him to. Even though the changes made it more palatable to him, he really didn’t want it again on Tuesday. Eric and I both told him again how he needs to eat things that aren’t his favorite too. Sometimes you eat foods because you know they are good for you, even if they aren’t your favorite. We were still letting him know we expect him to clean his plate without screaming, “It’s on your plate! Eat it! You’re not leaving this table until it’s all gone!!!” I definitely didn’t want to repeat history on that one. I can still hear my dad’s loud words echoing in my ears!

Then Eric started to talk about how he found a recipe for cicada pie online and wrote a post about it for The Other 95%. I sighed. The copepod poop stories at past dinner times were bad enough. I’m glad I eat fast. I was already finished with my dinner before I could lose my appetite.

Johann perked up. The change in conversation topic was just what we needed. Anything that grosses Mommy out is fun. The discussion turned to all the insects we knew of that people eat. Some people eat chocolate covered grasshoppers. Eric has eaten chocolate covered ants. In Asia they eat fried cockroaches as snacks. In Australia people eat grubs. I told Johann the man who wrote the cicada pie recipe said cicadas taste like cold asparagus. He replied, “I like asparagus! I bet I’d like cicada pie!!”

Eric suggested that Johann pretend his Swiss chard was cicada pie while he ate it and then it wouldn’t be so bad to him. We thought it tasted good, but understood if he didn’t like it as much. With that said, he was still expected to eat all of it. Johann was very happy to pretend he was eating cicada pie and it was gone in no time. In between bites he kept complimenting me on how I make such yummy cicada pie, very crunchy.

Then Eric expanded the game to the manicotti. He asked Johann what the manicotti could be. They decided it was giant stuffed earthworms with tomato meat sauce on top. Not only did Johann clean his plate, I got the ultimate stamp of approval: “Thank you, Mommy for making such a wonderful dinner. I really enjoyed the stuffed giant earthworms and the cicada pie. You know, when I thought of it as cicada pie, the Swiss chard tasted better to me. It didn’t seem so bad after all.” Gee, thanks.

Tonight was clean out leftovers night. Eric had the last of the stuffed giant earthworms. Johann ate twisted earthworms (hotdogs) with white chocolate covered ants (rice). I had roasted weevils (black beans) with ladybug larvae (tomatoes) and yellow ants (Spanish rice). At least they had the decency to wait until after I’d swallowed my last bite before they told me what my dinner was.