A beautiful table laden with orange flowers, Asian grasses, and tiny Mackintosh place setting vases with buds, Ellie sensed some extra specialness going on, and honed in on the first item I cooked; the honey and citrus cheesecake. Obsessed is another good word. Seeing an opportunity, I told her that she would of course get a slice if she tried every single course before the "cake". Her face demonstrated suspicion, but I was quite certain I had her over a barrel.
First course....salmon dolmathas, ie, salmon wrapped in grape leaves baked with a sauce. Her face was worth a 1000 pictures. No complaints, just abject horror. If I could interpret, I would think her brain was saying, "you have GOT to be kidding me...". I looked down at her plates and realised that I only set her places for the rest of the dinner and had skipped the first course, partly because I used a smaller set of plates and didn't have one as small as necessary for the appetiser, and partly because I wasn't going to make her try that first dish. I said, "Oh honey, I'm sorry; I forgot that I was going to have you skip the first course." Her relief was palpable.
One down, four to go before cake.
Second course...gypsy pie. She was on the hook for this one, and she had hopeful eyes that it was in the shape of a pie. The spinach, however, had a completely different effect. Despite her love for most things vegetables, I discovered cooked spinach was not one of them. Knowing that her cake was on the line, she move things around quite a bit, ate all of the other components, and to her credit, tried one bite of cooked spinach without doing what her face indicated desire....spitting it up.
Two down, three to go before cake. Survivability dropping.
Third course...stuffed eggplant. Nobody can't accuse me of being a mean mum since I let her have a complete pass with this one. She almost passed out with joy.
Three down, two to go before cake. *maybe more courses can get skipped??*
Fourth course...rack of lamb with an amazingly aromatic marination. Being a complete carnivore, I thought chances were high that she'd take to lamb despite the flavour that can be off-putting to many people. I announce with pride that she demolished medium rare lamb as if it were breakfast bacon, although it was discovered that she doesn't like lamb as rare as she likes beef.
Four down, one to go before cake. The light is at the end of the tunnel.
Fifth course...asparagus and baby roasted potatoes simmered in garlic chicken stock. Her face was almost like a loudspeaker as it said "why the h--- did mum waste our time with that crap at the beginning and not start with this stuff?" It was pretty funny and this dinner was turning very comedic for me watching her experience.
CAKE TIME! "Oh dear God, finally," was pretty well etched in her eyes. Teasing her that it looked like that we'd have to pass on the cheesecake was not a wise move on my part as she didn't even get mad, but just started melting. I felt terrible, and attempted to make up such cruelty by giving her an extra large slice.
In the end, I'm pretty sure that she felt the cake was worth the effort, although the entire episode completely wiped her out emotionally, resulting in an early crash to bed and a need to sleep in.
