I'm fairly certain that half of the food I ate this week was bell peppers. They were an ingredient in nearly every dish. I like bell peppers; they are versatile and add fun colors to a meal. But why are we eating so many of them these days?

Answer - the kiddo. 

Kiddo is still in that picky eating stage. All things considered, she's eating well but most vegetables are still suspect. When she decides she likes a specific vegetable, I ride that for as long as possible. Right now, she's on a big raw red pepper strips and cucumber kick. Fine by me! I will keep those around until she moves on to something else.

When it comes to meal planning, I try to balance what we adults like with what the kiddo might actually eat. I don't want to have to make two entirely separate dinners every night. Right now, I try to make dishes where she will eat least half of the ingredients. Alternatively, I'll make an adult dish that has a kid friendly tweak - i.e., omitting everything but the cheese from the filling when I make quesadillas.

It's working for now, but I can't wait until the kiddo's palette expands a bit more. She promises that she will eat "mommy-daddy dinner" when she turns five. I'm not holding my breathe, but you never know. Kids surprise you like that.

If you're feeding kids, what works for you?

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I’m making decent progress in This American Ex-Wife. It’s a nice blend of memoir, stats, and rage. A lot of the content feels like “well, duh” but that’s probably because I’m a woman. I think any men reading this might be surprised - just as they have been with the man or a bear thing happening right now.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• We deserve more ravioli. [Jezebel]

• Some delightfully playful pictures. [Colossal]

• Universities should have expected no less. [The Atlantic - gift link]

• The 30-minute recipe is a lie. [TASTE]

• Shame and comfort around nudity is contextual. [Articles of Interest]

• Modesty as a form of control and empowerment. [Articles of Interest]

• A lot of American democracy is on the honor system. [The Daily]

• A lovely conversation on deep reading. [Life Kit]

• Green stickers and glowing cats. [99% Invisible]

• I will now be referring to plants as "light eaters." [The Atlantic]

• The pain and progress of pointe shoes. [Articles of Interest]

• Righteous Thieves is story about a crew of thieves stealing back art stolen by the Nazis. It was not good. With a better script and a better cast it might have been decent but, as created, this was barely a C-level flick. It was way too slow in some places, and way too fast in others. Also, the plot had holes the size of Texas. [Tubi]

• Treason, on the other had, was phenomenal. This was a limited series in the spy thriller genre. The cast was well-chosen and provide wonderful performances. I would expect no less from Ciaran Hinds and Alex Kingston. I didn't know the other actors, but they were all good. Plus, while intricate, the plot does not suffer from needless elements. This was tight which keeps things moving. [Netflix]

• I can't believe that, in all my years of making shrimp, I've never made shrimp scampi. Somehow, that classic dish has been outside of my meal planning. I remedied that this week. It was a simply meal and we served the shrimp with elbow pasta... cause that's the shape the kiddo wanted. Angel hair would have been better. Also, I really felt that capers would have added just a touch of something extra. Might try that next time. [WaPo - gift link]

• A few weeks ago, I subscribed to some newsletters from Eating Well. Since then, a slew of tasty looking dishes have made their way into my inbox. One of those recipes was pepperoni pizza portobello mushrooms. This one certainly satisfied my pizza craving by was a bit messy. I might try to cook the mushrooms on a rack so that the liquid drains off. We served this with salad.  [Eating Well]

During finals week, I post a slew of “you can do it!” style posts for our students. I also include a few study break recommendations. That meant diving back into my photo archive to find some stuff. While doing that, I encountered this cheerful image of sunflowers. [My Personal Archives]

Sometimes we need a reminder that people aren’t mad at us.

Three glorious days of intersession this week where I will try to cram in far too much work I’ve been putting off while classes are happening.