The secret to getting your kids to eat new foods and like them, too (or why Alton Brown deserves my thanks)

Here's a really family-oriented, non-writerly post for Friday...but it's all about the blending of life and art, so I hope it's not too out of place here!

A few days ago, one of the farmers at our local farmers' market was selling the most gorgeous, luscious-looking leeks. Instantly our imaginations started going wild with the possibilities: leek and potato soup (or, heck, a million other soups that are better with leeks)...grilled leeks...who knew what? The minor snag, of course, was that we would expect our culinary endeavors to be appreciated by four little girls ages eight and under whose greatest skill may be artfully turning up their noses. (Okay, no, talking is their greatest skill. But nose-turning is close.)

Luckily, I learned this lesson a few years ago: the more children understand and appreciate a food, the more likely they are to eat it.

So we turned to our good friend Alton Brown. My girls have never heard of Justin Beiber or whoever the new kid star might be, but they do have crushes on chefs Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Michael Symon....but mostly Alton Brown. His show "Good Eats" is by far their favorite thing to watch on our weekly "movie" night, as it approaches a single ingredient or dish artistically, scientifically, historically and gastronomically. Occasionally I'll put on an extra episode during the week in cases of dire necessity. Like getting the girls to want to eat leeks.

I pulled out the laptop and the "Sprung a Leek" episode of Good Eats yesterday afternoon, and by the end of the half hour, two girls were arguing over whether we should make grilled leeks over a fresh green salad with bacon and feta cheese on top, or deep fried leek rings. We decided on the former, and then came the important (and often trickier part):

I let them be my sous chefs.

They instructed me on how to cut the leeks; they washed them; they gathered the lettuce from our garden; they crumbled the cheese and bacon. As we went along, we talked about what each component of the dish was adding to the whole. We tasted little bites, alone or with another ingredient. They helped me plate the dish to be sure it looked beautiful.

By the time those salads were on the table, the girls owned the whole experience and couldn't wait to dig in.

And my three-year-old, who last week told me that scrambled eggs were the "most yuckiest, terrible food ever," proclaimed that leeks were her new favorite food and cleaned  her plate.

Thanks, Alton Brown.