Green

Dear Frijole,

I can't be pretend to be a broccoli martyr anymore and I admit it:  I am a picky eater.  To be honest, I mostly blame your grandma.  The woman couldn't cook vegetables to save her soul.  Growing up, I was regularly served pale, mushy, limp vegetables that had been boiled to hell and back.  Who wants to eat that?  Unfortunately, your grandma was also in the school of parents who insisted that one would not leave the table unless one ate everything on the plate.  When you get two stubborn ladies like us together, you get a lot of still-sitting-at-the-dinner-table-at-midnight battles. 

Ingest this cold, sodden cauliflower or sit right here in the kitchen in the dark?  Well, I have all the time in the world, thank you very much.

(Frijole, I solemnly vow never to do this to you.  I will insist that you taste at least one bite of everything, but I refuse to leave you with the deep scars that midnight cauliflower leaves.)

So, in a nutshell, I am having trouble eating the vegetables you need and deserve.  Hell, I need and deserve them.  Thus!  I have purchased a blender that I believe will be a great assistance.  I can make lovely fruit smoothies and sneak some of the scary vegetables in!  People on the internets swear you can get a fair amount of broccoli in there before you can taste it, so it must be true.  Soon I will make the first experimental smoothie and find out.

I also enlisted the help of my friend Nicole--a chef who knows a thing or two about preparing these hideous things.  She gave me two recipes for kale that I can't wait to try.  They're quite simple so I'll put her recipes and instructions here:

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Raw Kale Salad

Peel kale from stems.  Toss with rice wine or red wine vinegar and salt.  Massage with hands.  Leave in fridge for a day so leaves are softened.  When ready to serve, toss in sunflower seeds, crumbled bacon, cut up apple,  a can of cannellini beans, canned tuna, or anything else your heart desires.

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Kale "Chips"

Preheat overn to 400 degrees.  Take kale off stems and rinse leaves.  Put on cookie sheet in single layer, and drizzle with olive oil and garlic salt.  Put in oven for 12-15 minutes.  (Can also do with sesame oil and sesame seeds.)

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While I can't yet personally vouch for them yet, I trust Nicole and feel optimistic that the previously-never-tried-and-always-mysterious-resident-of-the-leafy-green-vegetable-aisle may be a much more regular item on my grocery list.

In other related news, Frijole, your first official prenatal appointment is on Tuesday morning.  While I am incredibly pleased about being able to receive your prenatal care at UCSF, I approach it with trepidation.  I'm scared of getting my hopes up, and scared of being scheduled for an ultrasound because I have never seen a living baby inside of me.  The image of your very still sister on that black and white screen still haunts me, and the hope that it can be different seems more than I can hold at this moment.

I have to say, though, that so far you have been incredibly easy on me.  My feet and ankles are not swollen.  I'm not sick, and I'm not even unusually tired so far.  You love orange juice, and you want to eat breakfast IMMEDIATELY after I wake up, but at this time I can't complain.  Physically I feel good.  I'm sure this will change soon enough, so for now I am relishing it.  If future nausea and fatigue and discomfort mean that I will get to hold and nuzzle you, then I will bear it.

Love,

Mama