A cookbook that I don't have, but should get

I was waiting at the orthodontist's office yesterday for what turned out to be an hour long visit. I managed to flip my way through every People magazine in the office. Reading people confirmed what I've long suspected: I am slowly turning into my mother, because I had no idea who half the people in the magazine were.

It was also interesting flipping through months and months of the magazine in one fell swoop. Every month has a confession from some star or starlet about substance abuse or eating disorders, every month has worried friends emoting about a star's or starlet's substance abuse or eating disorders, every month has a glowing report about a star's or starlet's incredible parenting skills, and there are lots of fashion pages for clothes that really don't look very nice. (Have I mentioned that I'm turning into my mother?)

Scattered amongst these kinds of articles, which hold no interest for me, are some stories about things people have accomplished, whether they're famous or not. One of the accomplishees profiled in a recent article is Jerry Seinfeld's wife. Now, much as I admire Jerry as a comedian -- and I think he's one of the most gifted comic minds around -- I'm really not interested in his wife. But I am interested in what she's done. She's created a cookbook with recipes that appeal to kids, but that have healthy ingredients hidden within them.

Jessica Seinfeld's book, called Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, has already gotten some negative publicity, although I suspect it's not deserved. The author of a similar book has cried foul, but Jerry has defended his wife against charges of vegetable plagiarism:

Jerry Seinfeld says his wife isn't guilty of "vegetable plagiarism." Jessica Seinfield's "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food," published this month by HarperCollins, explains how to hide nutritious vegetables in traditional recipes so children will eat them.

The couple have three children.

"So there's another woman who had another cookbook — and it was a similar kind of thing, with the food and the vegetables in the food — and my wife never saw the book, read the book, used the book," the 53-year-old comedian said Monday on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman."

"But the books came out at the same time. So this woman says, `I sense this could be my wacko moment.' So she comes out ... and she accuses my wife. She says, `You stole my mushed-up carrots. You can't put mushed-up carrots in a casserole. I put mushed-up carrots in a casserole. It's vegetable plagiarism,'" Seinfeld joked.

"I love the term `plagiarism' for this little event," he said. "Because it used to be you had to really take a theme from a major novel, some sort of literary narrative. Now, you're in your kitchen making brownies, you sneak a little spinach in there, your name's dragged through the mud."

Since I just got an Amazon gift certificate, this book may well be the thing I buy with it.