Vegetables Are Yucky!

        Like many four-year-olds, I have an issue with vegetables. You’d think I might have grown out of it by now, but that simply is not the case. Sure, I eat green salads occasionally, but that can get a bit repetitive. I also consume foods with a lot of vegetables in them: vegetable soup, a chunky tomato sauce, vegetable stew. I even drink V-8 sometimes, in a lazy attempt to have a minimal number of vegetable servings a day.
       But the thought of eating vegetables as a side dish turns me off. Steamed broccoli, carrots or beans, even sprinkled with nuts or glazed with maple syrup, are still, simply… yucky! Sure, I’ll eat a bite or two if they’re put on my plate, but since I do most of the cooking around here, that doesn’t happen a lot.
       A few years ago, I put Tom in charge of my vegetable consumption. He was to pester me until I ate a suitable amount. You can imagine how well that turned out. At least our marriage survived.
       Then, last week, I had an idea. We were in New York City for a few days, and had dinner one night at Café Fiorello, across from Lincoln Center.
This restaurant has an impressive antipasto bar – a vast and colorful array of dishes like caponata, caramelized fennel, cauliflower Milanese, Tuscan white bean salad, and so on. I didn’t eat any of it, of course, choosing a giant fried cheese ravioli as my appetizer instead. Indeed, anything covered or stuffed with cheese wins my vote, every time. But my point is that the dishes at the antipasto bar looked good enough to eat!
       So here is my resolution for the month – to learn how to prepare vegetable dishes that I might actually enjoy eating.
       Now that my home is cleaner (and greener), and my posture is better, it’s time to listen to Mom again and “eat my vegetables”. But at the age of 45, I’ll do it my way.
       I’ll welcome any input, suggestions or recipes.