Epilogue: black bean brownies with some MINOR adjustments

...if you have not read the first part of black bean brownies with some MINOR adjustments, please go do so first...I'll wait...

When last we saw Lisa, she and the 6 year-old C had tried the brownies and she said, "C likes them, and I know R & S will eat them."

I asked her to post another update after everyone had a chance to try them out at dinner. Final results after the jump...

So, after dinner tonight, I broke out the  black bean brownies with some MINOR
adjustments. Here are the official results:

C (age 6): Takes a big bite. Takes a smaller bite. Looks at me in dismay. Is there anything else for dessert?
Me: No, honey, that's it.
C: That's too bad, mom. Because this is really disgusting.

Hmmmm. That was the same C who liked them earlier. Not an auspicious start. Maybe the next kid will like them more...

S (age 2): Takes a small bite. No like it. No LIKE it. NO LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Drops remnants on floor.

Uh oh! Things are not looking good for the black bean brownies with some MINOR adjustments...

R (also age 2): Takes large bite. Opens mouth without chewing, allowing contents to fall on highchair tray. Wipes tongue with hand. Angrily swipes at remains, sending them flying across the room. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sobs

Three for three, and not in a good way. But maybe it's just two year-olds with touchy tummies. (Let's have a moment of silent sympathy for Lisa who has to cope with the twins, who have celiac disease and can't have all those floury treats.) So what did Lisa think? Well, here are her final thoughts on the black bean brownies with some MINOR adjustments:

I tasted a very small bite. They were much better straight from the oven. They are truly awful. R is due home late tonight. I think I will just leave them out on the counter with no explanation, attractively arranged on a plate...

Turns out, R came home late and wisely ignored the plate of notQuiteBlackBeanBrownies, which went in the trash.

This shouldn't reflect on the original recipe, which is much more of a success, with some people, at least. To me, it's a tale of the limits of experimentation and the marvelous honesty of two year-olds.

The entire episode, is however, also a great reminder for me - buried in the middle of recipe creation and testing for that cookbook I still haven't really talked about, as I am - that this stuff is actually hard! You can't just thrown a bunch of ingredients at your kitchen wall and see what sticks like al dente pasta, you have to work at it, and bake a lot of  black bean brownies with some MINOR adjustments along the way.

Comments

[Paige]

Yeah, I've tried to add this and that together before...it rarely turns out good. It's best for me to just follow a recipe - and that's fine by me.

[Astrid]

Oh thank you for this story. The laughs it generated were healing for me. I'm presently single-parenting my three small kids for 11 days, and somehow hearing of other kids behaving this way makes me feel worlds better. My kids sometimes react like this even when I do follow a recipe to the T! My baby who is 10 months old already has a beautifully disdainful way of taking finger food, looking at it intently, then looking away as she deliberately opens her plump little fist and drops the food item on the floor. Even though she's the third child, it still hurts my feelings!