Spicy Conversation

Dave and I love spicy food. Solana does not. In fact, she even complains if she sees pepper in her food. I'm determined to accustom her to spicy food. This whole business of separating her portion while cooking or leaving out spicy additions from recipes is getting really old.

The other night I made chicken tikka masala. It was AWESOME and I recommend this recipe by Aarti Sequiera (you can also read my rave review at that site). She has a show on food network and it rocks! Anyway, it has a whole serrano pepper in the sauce and is quite spicy. I cooked the chicken in the sauce and took Solana's piece out of the sauce so that it still had some sauce but not a lot (Dave and my portions were swimming in sauce). Then I put some ketchup on top of her chicken. Here's how the conversation went.

S: It's WAY too spicy!
C: Ok. You don't have to finish the chicken but you do have to eat one more piece and finish your veggies.
S: Mommy, I do NOT like spicy foods. Why do you make me eat spicy foods?
C: Daddy and I really like spicy food so I want you to like it, too. With a little practice, it won't even seem spicy to you anymore.
S: I'll never like it.
C: Oh, I bet you will. In fact, when you're a mommy I bet you'll want your kids to eat spicy food, too.
S: I'll never do that.
C: What
S: Make my kids eat spicy food.
C: Hahahahaha
S: Hahahahaha
(Solana takes one more bite.)
S: Mommy!!!! You're right!!! I'm used to it and it's not spicy anymore!!!!!
C: (giggling) See! Mommy's right sometimes. I knew you'd get used to it.
C: (getting up from the table to clean Chloe). I'll tell you what. You don't HAVE to finish all your food but if you finish every bite on your plate you'll get a reward.
S: What?!?!
C: I'm not telling. You have to finish your food to find out.

3 minutes later her plate was clean and she got her toenails polished. Sometimes being a parent is too easy.