Love and All That Stuff

Beats me.  Happy Valentine's Day anyway.

This little Train Child stays right here with us - the Blog Wrangler insists.  So I pretend I made it just for her.

Here's hoping I get lucky for Valentine's Day.  Lucky?  That means a fresh, warm batch of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate (with Chocolate Chips) Premium Brownies.  With icing!

It's Criminal

This is the what Susan (and I) had for breakfast this morning. They are attractively arranged on ... no, we don't call those "paper plates" in our house ...the "summer china".

First, you start with this:

After a good toasting, you apply this:

Don't worry, you picked the kind with 1/3 less fat so it's healthy.  Then, you apply a liberal smear of the best, most criminal stuff in the world:

If you don't eat or like bacon, never mind. Otherwise, belly up to the trough. They probably could have called it Bacon Jam Crack.

Just to keep this in the art realm, here's a little birdie, wings are a bead glaze, the rest of the body is Golden's Iridescent Stainless Steel (Coarse) acrylic.

Susan speaks: There are days .... he sat right next to me as I entered what he wanted to comment (finally!) on several different blogs. Somehow, randomly, about half of the comments disappeared into thin air. What the ....?  Why is it that every time I'm trying to show him how he can do his own stuff the computer just barfs on me?

The Egg Came First

I'm a pretty decent cook and hard-boiled eggs are a snap to make. We like to always have some in the refrigerator for last minute egg-salad sandwiches or when we are hungry but in a hurry to go somewhere. Can't say no to protein!  We've learned the hard way to not only keep them in a separate bowl in the refrigerator but to also mark on them. Otherwise, it makes for an interest episode when two people are working in the kitchen and one will be using hard-boiled eggs to make egg-salad but the other is going to make scrambled eggs with the regular eggs and they both have put their eggs on the counter and the one using the hard-boiled eggs always cracks the egg by slapping it on the counter.... you get the picture.

Susan just grabs a pencil and scribbles a mark on the egg. This question will be on the final exam:

In the picture above, identify which eggs have been marked by Susan

 and which eggs have been marked by Don. 

 

 

These aren't eggs, these are giant acorns, about the size of a tennis ball. Their stems could have been a little thinner and maybe their caps a little shorter but I'm liking them. They are going to get some color added with a paint wash. For a long time I've fought using paint on my ceramic pieces -- they are supposed to be glazed! But I'm beginning to realize that I can do anything I want -- My art, My rules.  Robert Rauschenberg can put quilts on his paintings, I can put paint on my ceramic sculptures.



The World's Best Guy Oatmeal Cookies

Not only am I an accomplished ceramic artist/sculptor, I can also make The World's Best Guy Oatmeal Cookies. Do not think about making these cookies if you are a delicate, fussy person. These are Guy cookies, they are fattening and and sugary but have oats in them so the healthy oats win over the bad stuff and don't tell me I'm wrong, I don't want to know. 

Trust me, this will be easy -- there are only 5 ingredients.
First, turn the oven on to 375 degrees.

Now, you put these things in a bowl and mix them up:
1 + 1/3 cups of flour
2 + 1/2 cups of rolled oats
About the oats:  Not the instant kind and not the 5 minute kind - just the real old-fashioned rolled oat kind.

Next, you use a 2 cup glass measuring cup:
Measure in 3/4 cup of cooking oil (I use Wesson canola oil).
Use the same glass measuring cup and pour in, on top of the oil,
3/4 cup maple syrup

You know you have 3/4 cup of syrup in when the line shows 1 +1/2 cups of liquids. That's heavy duty math for me but then I'm the kind of guy that has to say to myself "Big into Little means percent." Yes, I was a financial planner in my previous life. Don't ask.
About the syrup: Not the pancake kind but the real kind, the expensive kind. I get mine at CostCo.

Then add 1 Tablespoon (the big spoon) of vanilla to the oil-syrup mix.
Sort of whip that stuff around with a fork and pour it over the dry stuff and stir them up.

Now wait about 2 minutes for the dough to stiffen up. While you are waiting, put parchment paper on your two cookies sheets. If you don't want it to roll up, fold the 4 corners in. Blob the dough down into 24 cookies and bake them for ABOUT 13-15 minutes, or until there is just a little bit of brown showing at the edges.

When you take them out of the oven just slide them onto the layers of newspaper you've set on the counter. No need to make any more dishes messy by getting out some sort of cooling rack. Notice that this recipe messes up a minimum amount of dishes. If you think using parchment paper is expensive, just consider that you'll be saving on your water bill because you don't have to wash the cookie sheets.

I'm not promising you'll have success right away with this recipe - we fiddled with the amount of flour and the cooking time for about 8 batches before we got what we liked. You can also add some salt, we don't. Or add raisins or chocolate chips or any other decadent thing your heart desires. Just remember, there are oats in those cookies so they must be good for you!

Buried Treasure

Seth has the annual Buried Treasure online collaboration going on. Go here to see what I'm talking about. The guy is a Creative Maniac! I am in awe of the work he produces, not to mention he's a nice guy. Enjoy his blog, it's a treat. 

Here's the text of the original post. Notice the mention of the weather, not that we can possibly even remember what it's like to be anything under 100 degrees in Texas.

**************************************************
More Baby Pots and Pancakes
January 21, 2011
 

Baby Pots because Baby, it's cold outside!

I am an oatmeal fan and a pancake fan so I really enjoy cold weather as an excuse to have those for breakfast. Not both at the same time until now because Susan has found a recipe for oatmeal pancakes that are even lighter and puffier than the Bisquick Melt-In-Your Mouth ones (recipe on the box) we've been making. Up until now she only tolerated oatmeal in cookies but these pancakes have won her over.

Oatmeal Pancakes
--------------------
Mix in a bowl:
1/4 c. flour
1 c. quick-cooking oats (the 1-minute kind)
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
a dash of salt
optional: 1/4 t. cinnamon (we don't opt)

Mix in another bowl:
1 c. nonfat buttermilk
1 large egg
2 T. melted butter

Add the wet stuff to the dry and stir just until mixed.
Cook on your lightly oiled (or not, if teflon) pancake griddle or in a pan, turning when tops are covered with bubbles. These might looked browner when done than normal pancakes.

If you are of the decadent type you can do what we do: Fry up Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. Crumble it into little pieces. Sprinkle them on the pancakes before you flip them over to finish cooking. When you serve them, serve them sausage-side up because then there are all the little spots to trap the syrup.

If you have extra pancakes left over they will reheat (about 10-20 seconds) in the microwave the next morning. If you are like us, there won't be any left over and after breakfast you'll just go lie on the floor for an hour or so.

For the record, I can cook and I can make these all by myself.

Summer Colors

I'm working again with heads (about 4" high) but this time I'm focusing on color. Right now I'm liking purple, chartreuse, cinnamon and black.  We'll see how far I can go with those colors. This head needs a little more work, maybe just a clear matte glaze but then again I might just accidentally screw him up. Oh well.

Our friend, Maria, has a knack for growing anything, regardless of the weather. She brought us the okra and yellow cherry/pear tomatoes. I cooked them with some onion, and red cherry tomatos and then tossed them with chili butter and capellini. And bacon. Of course.

All About Me. And Food

Nothing much happening here but we did get a little rain the other night. To alleviate my boredom Susan told me to make some bread while she was out running an errand. She promised it would be easy and it was. One hour, self-rising flour, sugar, some melted butter and Yes! A bottle of beer. We had a few chunks warm from the oven and smeared with butter. She had also promised it wouldn't taste so great. She was right. But the birds and raccoons aren't as picky as we are. Next week she promised to upgrade me to a fancier recipe.

I took the video on the bottom with my iPhone. Can you tell I've been listening to FoodTV? Rachel Ray would be proud of me. Susan spent about an hour trying to figure out how to make it look better (other than my cheesy narration) on YouTube and determined that:
1) I should have filmed it sideways,
2) she wasn't going to mess with it anymore and
3) she had no idea how to fix it. (Any ideas?)
What you see is what you get.

To sum it all up, I can serge and I can bake bread and I am the Champion of Napping!

To atone for the crummy video we'll give you a recipe for a pie that's like the one pictured. Promise yourself you'll only make it once a month. (OK, once a week.) Promise yourself you won't eat the whole damned thing in one day (OK, it was the two of us). Totally ignore the aversion you might have to buttermilk because you won't taste it. I promise. Totally ignore the fact that Cool Whip is fake stuff because once you taste the pie you won't care. Totally ignore the fact that this pie is just a highway to junk-food hell because once you taste it you'll be asking for the express lane.

Velvet Pie
------------
Dump a package of Jello French Vanilla Instant Pudding mix in a bowl.
Pour 1 cup of buttermilk over it.
Whisk it together quickly until it looks smooth.
Fold in 1 8oz container of Cool Whip.
Plop it into a graham cracker pie crust.
Chill for a couple of hours.

Sounds too bland? Not!
Consider doing the same thing with White Chocolate Pudding mix and a chocolate cookie crust. Or try a different pudding like lemon or butterscotch or chocolate.
Too decadent for you? Wimp! OK, use the fat-free pudding and fat-free Cool Whip and low-fat pie crust.

One last tip: For us, the treat part is the crunch of the pie crust. So we buy 2 crusts. The first crust is the pie bottom and gets half of the mix plopped in, then topped off with some broken pieces of the 2nd crust (about half of them). Plop in the rest of the mix and top it off with the remaining chunks.

You aren't getting a picture of our pie because we were too busy eating to stop for a photo op.

Hatch Chiles

I'm lucky enough to live in a town where we have both Central Market and the Mother Ship of Whole Foods. It's a miracle I don't weight about 400 pounds. 

Central Market has an annual Hatch Chile Roasting Week (lots of special foods and festivities) in the late summer but other times during the year they will get a bunch in and set up roasters in the front of the store.  The smell of the roasting chiles will magically make Bacon-Cheddar-HatchChile Scones jump into your grocery cart.



Sorry I can't offer you a Scratch-n-Sniff option on my blog. These videos will have to do.  I took them with my iPhone because I have now learned how to make a movie versus a photo.  (I'm still pretty pathetic on Angry Birds but beginning to really like Osmos.) I also know not to be talking on my iPhone while I'm in the bathroom.  I learned that from my sister-in-law who tattled on her husband -- he had to buy himself a new cellphone because he dropped it in the ...

More Baby Pots and Pancakes

Baby Pots because Baby, it's cold outside!

I am an oatmeal fan and a pancake fan so I really enjoy cold weather as an excuse to have those for breakfast. Not both at the same time until now because Susan has found a recipe for oatmeal pancakes that are even lighter and puffier than the Bisquick Melt-In-Your Mouth ones (recipe on the box) we've been making. Up until now she only tolerated oatmeal in cookies but these pancakes have won her over.

Oatmeal Pancakes
--------------------
Mix in a bowl:
1/4 c. flour
1 c. quick-cooking oats (the 1-minute kind)
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
a dash of salt
optional: 1/4 t. cinnamon (we don't opt)

Mix in another bowl:
1 c. nonfat buttermilk
1 large egg
2 T. melted butter

Add the wet stuff to the dry and stir just until mixed.
Cook on your lightly oiled (or not, if teflon) pancake griddle or in a pan, turning when tops are covered with bubbles. These might looked browner when done than normal pancakes.

If you are of the decadent type you can do what we do: Fry up Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. Crumble it into little pieces. Sprinkle them on the pancakes before you flip them over to finish cooking. When you serve them, serve them sausage-side up because then there are all the little spots to trap the syrup.

If you have extra pancakes left over they will reheat (about 10-20 seconds) in the microwave the next morning. If you are like us, there won't be any left over and after breakfast you'll just go lie on the floor for an hour or so.

For the record, I can cook and I can make these all by myself.

Late edit by Susan: Angie's Comment includes a similar recipe, but you have to plan ahead and soak the oats overnight. By using the quick 1-minute oats you can avoid that advance planning. We've tried them both ways (regular oats, soaked overnight and quick oats not soaked) and we can't tell that much of a difference. In our house the pancakes are usually a spontaneous decision so the quick method has become the Go-To recipe.

Gifting and Giving

This is Mr. Scrubby, made of some kind of ecologically wise material. I usually do the dishes so Susan gave him to me and we decided he was too cool to use so he just watches me from the window. We had a fairly quiet holiday. I am listening to an audio book, Unbroken, a terrific book that makes me realize I am a total wimp. Susan is reading a library book, The Passage, and insisting we leave the lights on all night long. Here are more books that we gave each other:

We aren't big gift givers - if we really want something expensive we decide together, if it's not expensive and something we really want, we just get it. Or rather, we wait a week or so and then get it. Which means often times the urge has passed ("If it's meant to be, it will happen"). Unless, of course, it's books and as far as that goes, Amazon should have sent us a Christmas card. Susan has over 130 books on her Amazon Wish List, but just to balance that out, there are three Reserved books waiting for her at our library.

We made Portuguese Soup for our Christmas Eve dinner and finished off with some Pumpkin Cake Roulade we'd held back from the one we took to her sister's that afternoon. We also held back some of the Black Russian cake from the same gathering. Susan usually only makes those cakes once a year so I insist on cutting some quality control samples before they leave the house. Wouldn't want anyone to get some bad cake.

Finally, here is the last of my batch of Nichos, for now anyway.

Here's hoping you had a happy holiday break.

Ants in My Pants

We always make a family visit in Washington DC, specifically to stay at the Sheila B&B. Usually we are the first visitors in the spring so Sheila counts on me to put the BBQ grill back in shape for the summer. She cooks us great meals while we are there and I man (yes, M-A-N) the grill, usually for salmon. This summer she and I were very surprised to find a huge colony of ants had decided to take over the grill. There was a lot of ant smacking before we got dinner started.

A special treat at Sheila's is CallieCat. Or, as she prefers, Ms. Callie. She is a funny, friendly cat but gets totally spooked at nothing for no reason at all (that we humans can figure out) and will subsequently disappear for a day or so. She also is very shy about having her picture taken.

Diet Spoon

Want to lose weight? Try my new and improved guaranteed weight-loss Diet Spoon.

No? Then how about a rice salad that I (yes, me) make? Which is for dinner tonight, along with pan-fried tilapia for me and a crabcake for Susan.

This recipe is an old one we've used for years but the only place we could find it for you on the internet was here. Sometimes we add sauteed mushrooms and almonds that have a special name but I'm not sure what it is - sliced? slivered?

Susan, The Blog Wrangler, speaks: Today Janis told me that this blog has been pretty thin lately. She's absolutely right. However, in my defense I'll have to point out that her blog is totally non-existent. And it's the summer. And I'm lazy. I'd like to promise I'll do better but that sounds like too much work.

I'm From Venus, She's From Mars

Guess what???
I can make cookies!
Oatmeal-ChocolateChip-Raisin-Walnut Cookies, to be exact.
Yes, I can so, and they taste great.

Susan gave me a lot of coaching but aside from not knowing the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon and not realizing that a cookie dough blob as big as your fist might not make a proper cookie, I did it all myself.


That's my big accomplishment for this week. School starts in 8 days and obviously I have done exactly diddley-squat. About 10 times a day I see Susan staring wistfully at the Countdown calendar and I think she has stopped speaking to me unless her teeth are clenched. She keeps starting sentences out with the words "When I get my life back...." and then just sighs.

Her big accomplishment for the week was doing some magic stuff so that we can stream unlimited Netflix movies instantly to our TV. This is real magic to me because the computer is downstairs on the north side of the house and the TV is upstairs on the south side of the house. Whatever she did involved a lot of crawling around on the floor, a trip to Office Depot for some kind of cable 50 feet long, two holes drilled in the ceiling and wires snaked through the attic. The router is now in the living room and the modem is in another room and the TV in a different room.

How does this work???? I would have helped a lot but she started ignoring me when I couldn't tell the difference between the modem and the router. Well, they are both sort of square, have wire-things coming out of them and lights that flash.

To sum it up, I bake cookies and she wires the house. Your basic gender-specific characteristics at work here.

What's What

What will be for dinner on December 24th: Gumbo with extra shrimp and sausage, served over rice, Chocolate Lava Cakes, Champagne.

What I'll watch again, amazed by the stunning cinematography: Mongol.

What I'm reading: The King of Lies by John Hart.(I also thought his The Last Child and Down River were great).

What is a new bad habit: Ginger Chocolate bars.

What I'm drinking too often: Bacardi Limon.
In my defense, truth-in-labeling reveals this important nutritional information about each drink I sip:
Fat -- 0g
Cholesterol -- 0mg
The Protein data (0g) can be ignored, as I'll get all the protein I need from the smoked almonds I munch as I sip.



What I'm working on: A new Big Head


What I would like for all of us to have this holiday season: Peace on Earth. On second thought, that sounds sort of hokey, like what beauty contestants always say they want. So I'll just lower my expectations to: Bring home all the men and women serving in our armed forces. Alive.

Happy Holiday wishes to all of you, everywhere, connected to me as if by magic.

A Quintessential Austin Experience

I'm lucky enough to be married to a very, very good cook. Back in the dark ages, when pasta meant only spaghetti she learned to make many kinds of pasta (we still have the pasta roller which has not been used for rolling out clay). And when anything other than white bread was hard to find, she made bread. She took cooking classes, bought, read (of course) and used cookbooks, and subscribed to numerous cooking magazines.

All of this was great and it made for some fantastic meals. We used to have a big hot tub in our back yard and we'd throw big dinner parties on Sunday night that were called "Smoke and Soak". This was the 70's. Enough said. But after about 10 of years of doing them Susan got tired of spending all day Saturday shopping and prepping food and then all day Sunday getting ready, She didn't "smoke" so she was the only one with enough logical brain cells to clean up (and pass out the kazoos to the idiots in the hot tub). So we quit doing that and focused on working 80 hours a week instead.

Fast forward a number of years -- Austin has developed Central Market and is the World Headquarters of Whole Foods. Gourmet food is easy to find and both stores offer many different take-out options so we do a lot of take-out, which Susan can't resist ramping up the quality on (see previous post).

But we very, very rarely eat out. Hardly ever. Two reasons:

Reason #1 - Susan can cook me a meal better than most restaurants.
She doesn't do things like "Oyster Gonads Napped with a Pomegranate Suspension of Fuzzy Wahoo Cheeks" or like "Fresh Bermuda Grass Marinated in Moose Cheese Reduction Goosebuds and Adorned with Blueberry Oatmeal Chaff" but I don't eat stuff like that anyway.

Reason #2 - I hate the pomp and circumstance.
That encompasses the tedium of be waited on (and I have been a waiter myself), of waiting for someone to pay attention to me, of waiting for it to be my turn for the server to bring the too hot-too cold dinner, of listening to a menu being recited and trying to remember each Special, of waiting for a check, of having to do the math for a tip, of having to tip for mediocre service, of having to pick an overpriced wine I know nothing about, and having to yell over the din of the other people because the room is loud and echo-y because they know that will move people out faster, or having to whisper because the place is as quiet as a tomb and you can hear the people at the next table chewing. Oh, and valet parking. I HATE valet parking.

So when Susan told me we were going out to dinner I was a little dubious. It was a 30-minute drive away from town, it was a fixed menu and a fixed time, and a small room. Maybe even we'd have to sit at a table with Other People! I splurged and bought a $15 bottle of wine and off we went.

The result? The best meal and best evening we've had in years and years. A small quiet room with only a few people gathered, casual but attentive service, and a gracious host. There is always an alternative vegetarian offering (Tempeh with Chimichurri the night we were there). If you ever come to Austin, go to Ronnie's. You might see us there because we'll be going back.

The picture at the top of this post shows how happy I was with my meal. The picture at the bottom shows the two main dishes (we had Ronnie split them for us) and obviously we were too busy eating to bother with the pictures until halfway through the meal.

Ronnie's Real Food Bistro at Elysium,
Menu for July 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mediterranean Dip with Flat Bread
I
Watermelon Gazpacho
This is a savory soup with a subtle, teasing flavor and great color. It makes a terrific opening summertime dinner course. Served cool.
II
Roasted Port Tenderloin with Chimichurri
or
Mahimahi with Cranberry-Ginger Sauce
The pork tenderloin is rubbed with sea salt, ground cumin, ground coriander and fresh ground black pepper and then roasted. It is served with chimichurri, a thick herb sauce of Argentina, and organic couscous. Mahimahi fillets are grilled and topped with a cranberry, ginger and mirin sauce and served with organic couscous.
III
Seasonal Salad of Green Beans and Tomato with Pumpkin Seed Dressing
Green beans, tomatoes, and salad greens are enlivened by a thickened dressing that's almost like a Mexican pesto. Its body and creaminess come from ground toasted pumpkin seeds.
IV
Espresso-Rum Creme Custard
Satisfying and creamy, this espresso-rum creme custard is a divine way to finish a summertime meal.

Complimentary Coffee
BCYOB (bring chilled your own bottle, no corkage fee)

Seating is at 7:00 p.m.
Cost of the four-course dinner is $25 and includes all taxes and gratuities.

Not Calorie Counting Here

Mushroom, artichoke heart, pesto and goat cheese pizza from Central Market. They never put enough stuff on so additional mushrooms, sauteed with garlic in butter, were added along with extra goat cheese, pesto sauce and parmesan cheese. If you are going to eat decadently you might as well go all the way.

How far is "all the way"? Dessert was Key Lime Pie Ice Cream (Susan) and Hot Fudge Sauce on Vanilla (me).

New York City, Part Two

In New York City we often stay at the Beacon Hotel where all the rooms have microwaves and little refrigerators. Right across the street is Citarella and upstairs is their bakery case where Susan buys her Porcupine Cake. $17.99, not that she even cares or notices because whatever the price is, a chocolate lover pays it. I'm glad to pay whatever the price is just so I don't have to hear her say "I hope they have Porcupine Cake. I really like Porcupine Cake. They'd better have Porcupine Cake..." at least a thousand times during the week before we get to the city.

Usually the Porcupine Cakes are little miniatures, just right for the two of us to split. But sometimes they just have the large one, suitable for frenzied attack. That's why the refrigerator is important because when you want Porcupine Cake for breakfast too..... Diligent as Susan is with the camera, this cake was already whacked into before she decided to catch her breath and take the picture.

Inside is very light and fluffy chocoate mousse and whipped cream filling, the outside is crisp chocolate g-something, twisted up into little curls. Silly as the cake looks, I like eating it, too, much to Susan's disappointment.

Was there anything else important we saw in New York City besides cake? Yes, but my Blog Wrangler is wandering off whining about missing her cake so you'll have to wait a day or so.

Indulging Yourself

"It's been a depressing winter, and there's nothing wrong with indulging yourself a little."

---- Ran Kivetz, a business professor at Columbia University, on people being so worried about saving money that they miss out on life's pleasures.

We went to the Round Top/Warrenton Antique/Flea Market a few days ago. Parking is always tough but we watch out for the Funnel Cake truck and park near there. The Market happens only twice a year and we don't go everytime but when we do, Susan MUST have a funnel cake. That's the only time she ever eats one. Yep, just as it looks like in the pictures below, cooked in an obscene amount of grease. Covered with powdered sugar. Eaten with fingers. This year the wind was blowing really hard so she anchored it down with the plastic knife. And then did her indulging. She didn't share and I didn't dare ask.

Frisky Pop

Susan speaks:

My best gift from Don was my new "Frisky Pop".

Yeah, yeah, they call it something else but that's because they don't know any better. I'm a big popcorn fan and got real ticked off at Orville R when he changed the size of the microwave sacks down from 3.5 ounces to 3.3 ounces. And didn't tell me and definitely didn't lower the price. I KNOW he did this because when we make popcorn it always goes in the same special popcorn bowls, always up to the top edge with just enough room to stir in the salt and sugar. All of the sudden, the popcorn didn't go up to the top edge. Did Orville think I wouldn't notice? Does he think size doesn't matter when it comes to food? Who does he think he's fooling?

Sugar on your popcorn? Probably you should not do it because once you do, you'll never stop. Although popcorn is good for you (lots of fiber), sugar is not so good for you. But, as we are constantly under Homeland Security's Red/Orange/Yellow/Purple/Blue/Whatever alert, which we all know means "Eat dessert first", I say just go for it.

Now that I've had real popcorn, popped as I slowly whirled it in my "Frisky Pop", I'll never go back to microwave again. I had forgotten how good real popcorn tastes! It's sort of like the difference in taste between the tomato you bought in the store and the warm tomato you just picked off the vine and bit into.

[Nope, no affiliation with the Whirley-Pop makers. Don got mine at BedBathBeyond but they are about the same price at Amazon, where they have a very high review rating.]

Susan Doesn't Like Fruit

Susan doesn't like fruit, especially not fruit juice. She firmly believes that 9 grapes meet the recommended 9 servings a day of fruit and vegetables. So I lure her into eating fruit by making her "designer" breakfasts every morning, which she will eat, as long as I don't try to sneak in prunes. At least she doesn't try to convince me that guacamole is a green vegetable.