the vegetarian thing -- part 3

I got my brother to eat vegetarian chili last night. My niece wanted to eat at my place (mostly to play with the cats I think) so I said "sure, I'll make some chili!" I'll tell you, the look he gave was "Oh dear god, I'm gonna die." But he did manage a somewhat graceful save of "uh...ok. umm...sure, that...that sounds good." Ye gods, it's chili. Chili is nearly impossible to fuck up, no matter what you do or don't put into it!

Anyway, it was good (duh!) and my brother was pleasantly surprised. He kept saying "that was good. That was really quite good." Yeah. Like I'm gonna feed him garbage. But I must say I was pleased that he liked it. And today he called and said he and my niece were at the grocery store picking up stuff for dinner -- corn on the cob, broccoli, stuff for tossed salad (they also got chicken to grill) -- and wondered if that and baked potatoes would be good. While my first thought was "Holy crap, we don't need all of it at one meal!" I couldn't help but be touched that all of a sudden he seems more comfortable and accepting of this "vegetarian thing."