Tweedles

Today, the Pea is doing her Gandhi routine where she's on hunger strike.

Yes to milk. Arm flailing accompanied by a rapid fire whine fusillade when other food approaches her vicinity.

So I have a few weapons in my arsenal. Those individual cups of mixed fruit with cherries. Ritz wheat crackers. Cheerios.  She seldom refuses these items yet, today, she did.

So I pulled out the big guns.

I made tweedles.

In foodie parlance they're called tuiles, little crackers made my baking spiced parmesan cheese. I first encountered them at a Marriott that had menu items for the gluten intolerant...lasagna made of tuiles instead of noodles. FYI It was damn fine.

Later, when I started serving them with spaghetti or ziti instead of garlic bread, the dh hopped on board because they are yummy. I've made them several ways, with several seasonings. The basic drill is this,

Take a lump of shredded parmesan (a tablespoon maybe), put it on a paper plate and dump some Italian seasoning or basil or rosemary on it. Then zap it for 28 seconds and voila! Tuile.

Now they're much better and crispier if you bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 for 10 minutes but really...28 seconds to yum. The idea is you dry the cheese out so it's crunchy like a cracker not chewy.

The kid loves them. Will eat them over anything and it's a way to get some lean protein in her instead of despairing over her eventual starvation. I mean, she'll eat sugary crap but that's not my goal...so no animal crackers when she's playing Gandhi with mama.

DH renamed them because (a) he can't say "tuile" and (b) this way they sound like oh toddles! from mickey mouse clubhouse so we call them tweedles. No, our child will never speak properly. We accept this. Anyway, try these. They're good.