The other night at dinner we were having Babbo Salmon, which is short for salmon seared and served atop a crunchy cucumber salad. Here’s the recipe.

Iris vacillates on salmon. She always likes breaded salmon cakes, but when I serve the unadorned fish, sometimes she wolfs it down like, um, a bear cub and sometimes she turns herbivorous. This time, she wasn’t having it. She watched me and Laurie enjoying our salmon, poked at hers, and said, “Iris didn’t like any salmon.”

Later, one of us asked Iris if she wanted a salmon bite. She frowned and said, “Iris *can’t* like that.”

I know just how she felt. I *wish* I liked real maple syrup. Luckily, Iris got plenty to eat, because I also made crunchy home fried potato, fried in duck fat and finished with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. At one point, there were three little potato cubes left in the bowl, and Laurie said, “Iris, there are just three pieces of potato left. Who are they for?”

Iris lifted the first one out and said, “One for Iris.” Then she ate the other two.

I said, “Iris, you know what makes these potatoes so good? Duck fat.”

“Iris would like to *see* the duck fat!” So I got the container of duck fat out of the fridge and showed her. I think she was disappointed that it didn’t look like an actual duck.