Classic Food Tales

The only things she wouldn't eat were olives and celery. And even celery, well, she'd give it a go if it had been cooked with something else.

One summer day I watched in disbelief as she strolled over to a cherry tomato plant in our backyard, plucked the only red one off, and ate it.

My friend Deb is still in awe over the time Maddie swooped in and snatched a carrot from Deb’s fingers, only inches from her mouth.

Ever vigilant though I was, I once foolishly left an brand-new 5-lb bag of flour on the kitchen table and came home to a layer of white dust on everything. She didn’t actually eat a whole lot of the flour, as far as I could tell, but it sure did make a mess.

Then there was the time I grilled out with my friend Nancy. Since I had the grill going, I cooked a few different things, more than we were planning to eat that night. The pork chops were done first, and I took them off the grill, but we decided to sit outside and enjoy the evening while the rest of the foods finished cooking. I was puzzled that Maddie didn't want to be outside with us... it took me 20 or 30 seconds of feeling odd that Maddie stayed inside until I realized she wanted to be near the pork chops--and sure enough, she was up on the table when we went back inside to the kitchen less than a minute later.

In a similar vein, we left the kitchen without clearing the table after dinner another time and returned shortly to discover that the carcass of the rotisserie chicken we'd had was completely missing. No bones, no skin,... nothing. Fortunately, no ill effects were noticed.

The same cannot be said for the time she found the birthday present my sister had tucked onto a low shelf for our brother-in-law, Jack. While we were away Maddie tore into and ate more than half of a 2-lb box of Fannie May turtles. She was sick for hours, during which time she would not think of eating anything else. But as soon as she stopped needing to vomit, she was ready to beg for whatever was at hand.