Someone's In The Kitchen With Mommy
Today I dissected the world's largest ham hock (probably the wrong term, but whatever). Jesse's mom bought a huge one for us to eat this past weekend at the beach, and the thing just keeps on giving. I decided to cut all the meat off, dice it, and boil the bone for split pea soup, but it was a bigger job than I anticipated.
After twenty minutes or so of chopping away, Miette was getting terribly impatient with me. She had already dutifully emptied two large drawers and was skating on about 100 ziploc bags strewn around the kitchen floor, waiting for me to finish up already, but I was elbow-deep in Porky's left thigh and it just wasn't a good time to stop.
I figured the best option was to let her perch up on the counter next to me so she could watch. I set up a nice little pile of tiny bite-sized chunks of ham for her to munch on, but keeping it replenished was a challenge. Girl was hungry! She also kept calling it "cheese," which kind of weirded me out. Anyway, as I worked she kept inching closer and closer to the cutting board, while I scooted away in turn.
Suddenly she made her move and grabbed a huge chunk from my workspace, at least as big as her hand, and crammed the whole thing in her mouth. After a minute or two she had to spit a few pieces of it out, but when I checked a little while later it seemed she had managed to eat the entire thing. I'm certain I could not have come close to eating a proportionate amount myself, and the thought makes me kind of sick. But I was pretty impressed. And she took a nice long nap later, which was great.
After twenty minutes or so of chopping away, Miette was getting terribly impatient with me. She had already dutifully emptied two large drawers and was skating on about 100 ziploc bags strewn around the kitchen floor, waiting for me to finish up already, but I was elbow-deep in Porky's left thigh and it just wasn't a good time to stop.
I figured the best option was to let her perch up on the counter next to me so she could watch. I set up a nice little pile of tiny bite-sized chunks of ham for her to munch on, but keeping it replenished was a challenge. Girl was hungry! She also kept calling it "cheese," which kind of weirded me out. Anyway, as I worked she kept inching closer and closer to the cutting board, while I scooted away in turn.
Suddenly she made her move and grabbed a huge chunk from my workspace, at least as big as her hand, and crammed the whole thing in her mouth. After a minute or two she had to spit a few pieces of it out, but when I checked a little while later it seemed she had managed to eat the entire thing. I'm certain I could not have come close to eating a proportionate amount myself, and the thought makes me kind of sick. But I was pretty impressed. And she took a nice long nap later, which was great.
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