Take a trip to a vegetable market or to the vegetable and fruit section of a grocery store nearby. Look at all the fresh vegetables and fruit. Find something red! Tomato? Red pepper? Apple? Find something green or brown or yellow or orange! Find a new vegetable that you've never tasted before. Buy it and bring it home. Wash it very well.

Try tasting a little bit of your vegetable raw. How does it taste?
Cook the vegetable to see if you like it best raw or cooked. One vegetable you can eat raw or cooked is a carrot. Try tasting carrots three ways - boiled, roasted and raw.

To boil a carrot, peel and slice it into rounds. Put it in a saucepan and add water to cover. Add a spoonful or two of honey or just salt and pepper. Bring the water to a gentle boil and cook the carrot for about 15 minutes until it is soft.

To roast a carrot, peel and slice it into rounds just as you did to boil it. Preheat the oven to 450F (hot!). Brush a small baking dish with oil. Put the carrot slices in the dish. Drizzle oil over the carrots. You can drizzle honey over them, too, or just sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Roast the carrot for about 40 minutes or until brown and fragrant.
Try all kind of vegetables to find your favorites!

Read Stone Soup: An Old Tale (illustrated by Marcia Brown, published by Scott Foresman, 1987), a French story about 3 hungry soldiers who cleverly manage to acquire all the ingredients they need to make a tasty soup.

#520 Picking Mandarins