Mission Accomplished

Tonight Alexa knocked off one of the major items on her St. Louis to-do list....she ate frog legs!  I have to admit that I was very impressed that she went through with it; I know I couldn't have done it.

We met tonight for dinner at a restaurant near my parent's house (thank you Aunt Midge for the recommendation), as I even called ahead earlier this afternoon to make sure they were serving frog legs tonight.  The hostess who answered the phone started laughing when I asked if they offered a kid's meal with frog legs, but she did let me know they had an appetizer featuring three "saddles" instead of the normal five saddles with an entree.  Perfect.  Alexa was very excited, as soon as the server came over for the drink order, she was already requesting the frog legs.  The preparation consisted of a coating in Italian bread crumbs with a flash-fry, so I was hopeful the fried element might make them more palatable for Alexa, but I did order a honey mustard dipping sauce (in addition the the standard tartar sauce and cocktail sauce accompaniments) just in case.

Alexa initially freaked out when the plate of three saddles was placed in front of her, but it wasn't the frog legs that were the problem - they had sprinkled parsley flakes on the top.  Yes, she was not freaked out at the three sets of legs but rather tiny green herbs....go figure.  Thankfully that was an easy fix (I grabbed a separate plate for her parsley-free legs), and she dove right into her meal.  I couldn't believe it, but she ate one saddle with no issues, navigating around the small bones in the legs and trying each of the three dipping sauces.  I tried a little piece and nearly gagged, so I have to give all of the credit in the world to Alexa for her culinary adventurousness.

Frog legs aren't on the top of her favorite foods list, but she was very proud to have tried them and taken them off her to-do list.  I'm just praying that she never requests them again! :)

Excited to dig into her first "saddle"!

The much-anticipated meal (after one saddle and parsley were removed).