Swamp Water

Swamp water. Just the sound of it conjures up images of dark green smelly water with something funky and slimy growing on top.

And this is what my son said that the hollandaise sauce that I made last night was made out of.

First of all- the nearest water that could even remotely be called 'swamp water' is 20 miles away. Since I have no car, and Mike was at work- I'm pretty sure that I didn't get an 'swamp water' with which to make my hollandaise sauce yesterday.

Second- my hollandaise sauce was *yellow*, not green.

Cody's imagination is huge. And wild. And just a teeny tiny bit out there. He believes that one of Rudolph's jobs is to light Santa's way IN the house. He believes that tortellini are belly buttons. He believes that turkeys are chickens, and no amount of us correcting him will change his story.

He's also stubborn. I think that's where the 'swamp water' thing came from. And the thing is- he's not a picky eater. Never has been. This child ate horseradish sauce on his fries at eighteen months. He ate jalopenos at 2. Put it on his plate- and he'll eat it.

Except for my hollandaise sauce. A few weeks ago, Mike was making something with garlic. (BTW- Mike thinks that there are only two food groups: spicy hot and garlic. Since I don't like spicy hot, he tends to make a lot of stuff with garlic. He gave Cody a little tiny piece of raw garlic. Cody decided that he didn't like that- and refused, and I mean REFUSED, to eat anything with garlic in it. Including garlic bread (which he previously loved). Earlier this week, I made belly buttons (tortellini) with a garlic alfredo sauce. He ate the belly buttons, because he didn't know that the sauce had garlic in it (and I didn't tell him). An hour later, he walks up to me, garlic bread in hand, and says 'Ya know what, Mommy? I like this.' 'Really? It's garlic bread, ya know.' 'Yeah, I know.' And he just walks off, eating it.

I don't know what changed his mind- probably watching Dylan scarf down FOUR pieces of garlic bread and realizing that he was missing out on something. Whatever it was, it worked. He's back to eating garlic bread (but he still won't touch raw garlic. Frankly, I don't blame him).

So- I think that the whole 'swamp water' hollandaise sauce thing is him being stubborn. He feels that he has to have something that he just doesn't like. So he picked the one thing that he did not recognize at last night's meal- and decided that he didn't like it. Now, I won't confess to being the world's best cook. I'm better at baking, and I'm told that I make a mean mac and cheese (out of a box). But I was damn proud of that sauce. When Mike made it last month, his sauce was too thick, even a little bit lumpy (don't tell him that I said that- he takes his cooking seriously, and somewhere I have black mail pictures of him holding a pan of burnt belly buttons). It was good- but not perfect. Now- my hollandaise sauce was perfect. Thick, but not too thick. No lumps. *Sigh* At least I liked it.

Thanksgiving is this week. Tomorrow, I'm heading to Walmart to pick up the stuff that I need to make crab rangoon and green bean casserole. I'm also going to be picking up my christmas stuff from my parents' house, and getting a new crochet hooking (since I still can't seem to find mine). I think that we might also have to get dog food. Now that will be interesting! How to buy dog food without the kids finding out that I'm buying dog food. Because we will get the dog on Thursday.

Oh- gotta remember batteries. I need pictures of the kids' faces when they see Rosie and realize that she is their dog.