Broccoli Brownies

I design software, which means I work with a lot of developers. Developers are a bit like locusts, by which I mean they are lovely people who graciously eat all of my failed baking experiments. In fact, in my 12+ years designing software I have only discovered two things developers won't eat: plum pudding and those strange sweets from India that look like they're made of tin foil.

Kids are more like really picky locusts, that is to say that they'll eat a lot of something only if they like it. And my kids are no exception. K in particular has boycotted all fruit and if I want her to eat vegetables I have to make it worth her while with chocolate rewards. So I've adopted the trick of hiding berries and broccoli in brownies, which works surprisingly well.

Yesterday I got a bit carried away and added an entire package of frozen broccoli and another entire package of frozen organic blueberries to some brownie mix and baked it up for the kids. However, we had a guest from Ireland over and even after all these years living in Europe I still get distracted by a nice European accent. And I think we can all agree here (unless you're, like, Scottish or something) that the Irish have a nice way of speaking.

Anyway, long story short, the brownies ended up a bit overdone.

So, overcooked broccoli brownies. Yum. Thinking to myself that I have finally found the third thing developers won't eat I offered one to K, who loves brownies. She dove right in but after the first couple of bites she fixed me with a strange look, as if she knew I was up to something.

Her eyes looked very green and knowing. I knew she was on to me.

To distract her, I said, 'Darling, you're hair's getting so long.' This is not actually true but it seemed to work. She finished the brownie, chewing slowly, and gave me that shrewd, thoughtful look again.

Then she asked for another one!

So, my child ate broccoli today. Once again, I can't believe how much I rule!