Last week I took Iris to play at the treehouse play structure inside REI. This is the most awesome piece of climbing equipment I’ve ever seen. Like any good amusement, it feels dangerous, but it’s incredibly safe. You wind your way up the padded trunk of a plastic tree, across a bridge, and down a fast slide. I only wish it was four times as big. Iris played on it for two hours, stopping only for occasional sips of a smoothie from the adjacent World Wrapps.

The smoothie was strawberry-orange-banana, but Iris said it was “strawberry, orange, and rum.” This is because I let her pick out a sticker at the [pirate store](http://piratesplunder.com/) recently, and she chose the one depicting a skull drinking from a bottle, with the caption TIME FLIES WHEN YOU’RE HAVING RUM. I explained that this means, “Drinking tasty stuff makes you happy.”

I asked Iris where she wanted to have lunch after REI, and she requested Blue C Sushi. I wasn’t sure there was a way to get there by bus, so I asked the marvelous [Google Transit](http://google.com/transit), which told me we could catch a number 17 to the Fremont Bridge. We walked through South Lake Union, the Seattle neighborhood where every block is under construction, and watched a steamroller steamrolling a brand new road while we waited for the bus.

The last two times I’ve taken Iris to Blue C, she’s eaten rice and a cream puff. On one early visit, she tried a variety of items, but not my favorite, which is the mackerel. This time, she started with some edamame and moved on to a tempura shrimp roll and some noodles. Then she dug into the mackerel and eagerly ate several bites–dipped in soy sauce, of course. The only things she didn’t want were eel and the watercress garnish from the noodles, which was too spicy.

My guess, and there’s no way to confirm or deny this, is that this (surely temporary) spate of adventurous eating has to do with growth. In less than two weeks, she grew 3/4 inch. Presumably her brain is saying, “We need all the calories we can get, even if they’re green.” Of course, there are plenty of other fast-growing kids doing fine on plain toast.

We did get the cream puff, of course. After it was gone, Iris picked up its chocolate-cream-smeared doily and was about to try to lick it clean. “Iris, you cannot wipe that all over your face,” I said. She strategized. “We should get some of those!” said Iris, pointing at the potato croquettes. “Okay,” I replied. The croquettes are great–hot and crunchy, drizzled with sweetened soy sauce. Iris used hers to mop up the chocolate.

After we got home, we played Iris’s favorite game, conveyor belt, in front of our building. Iris inches along the railing of the wheelchair ramp, pretending to be sushi at Blue C.

> **Iris:** What kind would you like?

> **Me:** What kind are you?

> **Iris:** You have to say.

> **Me:** But you’re on the conveyor belt. Isn’t that your job?

> **Iris:** But I’m just a sushi. And sushis can’t think.

Iris and I have been playing a great video game called Chocolatier. It’s one of those trading and resource management games where you fly around to difference places, making friends and enemies and lots of chocolate. It includes an extremely realistic chocolate-making segment where you fire ingredients out of a cannon. If you ever tour [Theo Chocolate](http://www.theochocolate.com/), be sure to ask to see their vintage cacao cannon. (Yes, I’m lying.)

At one point Laurie came home and Iris said, “Mama, we learned to make infusions!”

Chocolatier is $20, for Mac or Windows. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my factory in Hong Kong needs attention.

News from the frozen potato front!

I’ve been unsatisfied with my hash for a while. I like to make hash of any kind of leftover meat or fish, but it wasn’t getting crispy enough. So I asked on [eGullet](http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?s=7d990b89ac57be561909bd15b13fedc7&showtopic=100379&mode=linear).

My favorite response was from slkinsey, who said:

> I think it depends on what kind of hash you’re going for. Not all hash is supposed to be crispy. I call that a “dry hash”–which says something not only about the final texture but also the way it’s made.

Sure enough, I had been doing things like putting broth, cream, and braising liquid into my hash and then wondering why it wasn’t crispy. It was tasty, of course, and I’ll still make this style of hash in the future. But for a recent episode of leftover corned beef, I wanted a dry hash.

I already knew I was going to start with frozen potatoes. I’d been buying Ore-Ida, but I decided to try Kroger brand. It turns out Kroger’s frozen hash browns are diced much more evenly than Ore-Ida’s. I put a pound of those in the skillet with half a stick of butter and some salt. When they were pretty well browned, I added diced corned beef and minced onions and continued cooking until everything was browned and crispy–some of the onions were a little burned, even, which for hash is a plus. It was excellent.

To go with the hash, I made that awesome caramelized fennel with Meyer lemon again. And Iris ate some. I repeat: Iris ate fennel. Of course, the possession was quickly exorcised, and this morning, she said, “I only like regular eggs, not with ramps.”

**Iris:** When I’m big I’m going to drive a big tractor. And I’ll have metal cows at my house.

**Me:** Metal cows?

**Iris:** You push a button on the back and they eat grass.

**Me:** Do they make milk?

**Iris:** Yes, you press a button on the udder and milk comes out into the container.

**Me:** Are these robot cows?

**Iris:** No, silly. They’re real pretend animals.

(later)

**Iris:** When I grow up, I want to be a lady.

**Me:** You will, but that’s not really a job, per se.

**Iris:** I’ll put on my suit and build my farm. Everything is going to be metal at my farm. The suit is going to be metal so I don’t blow away.

**Me:** What crops will you grow?

**Iris:** I’m going to grow ginger cookies with my wheat.

(pause)

**Iris:** Do ginger cookies come from wheat?

So, to sum up, when Iris is big she’s is going to wear a metal jumpsuit, eat cookies, drive a tractor, and milk robot cows. This sounds *awesome.* Except…

**Me:** Where is your farm going to be?

**Iris:** In Tukwila.

Last night we took Iris to our favorite restaurant, [Dinette](http://www.dinetteseattle.com/). She was not very impressed. She liked the gnocchi with short rib sauce and the lemon tart. Laurie and I had a wonderful pasta, trofie with braised octopus, escarole, radicchio, and toasted breadcrumbs. I intend to make a home version minus the octopus.

Today I had this conversation with Iris.

> **Iris:** I didn’t like the octopus.

> **Me:** Why not?

> **Iris:** It was too sucky.