Kids are Strange Part 1 of Many if I Know My Son

At the dinner table that isn't always a bad thing.  Tonight I grilled strip steaks with sides of asparagus and grilled potatoes tossed with a red pepper and caper sauce.  I thought William would balk at the red pepper sauce so I pulled out his serving of potatoes before I tossed them with the sauce.  Little did I know, he was interested in the sauce and found it quite tasty.  But our struggle tonight was asparagus.  Let me point out that William has always been a veggie lover.  At his first birthday party, I offered sandwiches and various sides to our guests but for William, I steamed broccoli because he loves it.  He is a green veggie lover and, for that, I consider myself a million times blessed.  Asparagus has never been a problem but suddenly he thinks it's evil so we were having a mother/son face-off that went something like,


Me: "Eat your asparagus.  You like it."
William: "No I don't."
Me: "You have to eat your asparagus if you want a snack tonight."
William: "Then I just won't eat anything else tonight."
Me: "You need your veggies.  EAT IT!"


Enter the aha moment. 
Me: "William do you like the sauce on the potatoes."
William:  "Yes."
Me: "What if I put some on your asparagus."
William: "Yeah, put a lot on it!"


And before I knew it his asparagus was gone.  So, for the record, a basic veggie is icky to my son but a red pepper and caper sauce is o.k.  I can't explain it but I'll go with it. 


Here is my personal problem - as I mentioned I am working on a cookbook.  I made the aforementioned sauce without measuring.  I need my new mantra to be, "measure measure measure."  But for this evening, we'll call this a victory.  I can measure tomorrow.