Open, Sesame!

A few months ago, I was watching a friend of Ruben's for a couple of hours.  Julio was sleeping and Diego was out, so I just had the two three-year-olds at snack time.  They looked up at me with hungry, expectant faces.

I sat them down on the kitchen floor and handed them each a small, silver prep bowl.  "You must be very hungry," I said, "here's your snack.  If you eat it all, I'll get you some more."  I put one raisin in each bowl.  They looked at each other and giggled.  One second later, "We want some more!"

I gave them each a single sunflower seed and said, "Sunflower seed.  If you eat it all, I'll get you some more."  More giggles, and then "MORE!"  An almond, a cashew, an oat, a peanut and a pecan later, we were all giggling and having a great time.  I was searching the kitchen for new things for them to taste, and they were happily trying everything.  Dried cranberry, blueberry and mango.  Candied ginger.  From the spice cabinet, they each tried a single seed of caraway, sesame (black, white, and toasted,) and cumin.  They were amazed by the big flavors of the tiny seeds.

They had a clove, a tiny piece of cinnamon and a grain of coarse sea salt.  I went through the fridge, giving them one tiny thing at a time: single slices of carrot, cucumber, banana and red pepper and small leaves of spinach, arugula and romaine.  The freezer gave us frozen blueberries, strawberries and peas.

I named each food as I put it in their bowls, and as they ate, they enthusiastically pronounced their verdicts: good, bad, spicy, sweet, salty, yummy, yucky, and above all, "MORE!"