Spring mix

Ten year olds and vegetables are an ill-fit. Ours eats them as long as there are no surprises. Green beans need to look like green beans with nothing stuck to them - no mushrooms or almond slivers, for example - and broccoli, boiled or microwaved, needs plenty of butter to help it go down. Peas and corn kernels should come from a bag in the freezer. Salad should be simple green leaf lettuce with some yellow peppers and cukes, tomato wedges. Tonight we served a "spring mix" salad with various leafy vegetables including spinach, red leaf lettuce, endive and mustard greens. Our ten year old did not revolt, but he did ask if he could finish the salad dressing, which still had about a quarter of its contents in the bottle. "Of course not," we said. Still, he applied a generous amount. Halfway through his salad, he reached for the salad dressing bottle again. "Why are you adding more?" we asked. Vigorously shaking the dressing into his bowl and with a puckered look about him, he said, "I can still taste the lettuce."