The recipe was left by one of our visitors like a magic spell lying dormant on the blog.

The GreatBigVegetableChallenge is now a little over a month old. I've made 14 posts, learnt to cook four vegetables in many different ways and most importantly watched as my son has parked some of his suspicions and tried these dishes. Technology and vegetables make strange bedfellows but something about this challenge really works. Freddie is seven years old, believes (quite rightly) in Father Christmas, the tooth fairy Jeffrey and the heroism of premiership footballers. And now, the Great Big Veg Challenge has taken on similar status in his mind. It is no longer just a blog but a force in its own right. He monitors the visits by people around the globe, danced around the kitchen when someone from Baku browsed and feels a responsibility to his virtual public to bravely face up to the challenge of putting fork to mouth.

So in this spirit he tried my beetroot risotto last night. The recipe was left by one of our visitors like a magic spell lying dormant on the blog. I then printed it off and brought it to life in our kitchen. It's no longer just a meal delivered by his nagging mother but much much more than that. I have magically disappeared from the equation so the meal isn't rejected out of hand. It is from one of his many followers and so has to be treated with respect. I won't pretend that he has stopped being fussy but he has developed a new politeness at the meal table which means that beetroot risotto was eaten with quiet respect. So the blogged-offerings made by people across the planet to the Great Big Vegetable Challenge are working their magic....