★ Little Sunshine's Wonderland ★

: Time to eat!

Daughter: Coming. Oh, I'm starving. [Good, good.] Oh yuck! What's that?

Father: Ah, now don't complain!

Daughter: But what is it, and where is mom?

Father: Now, mom put me in charge of dinner because she's not feeling well tonight.

Daughter: But what is it . . . and that smell!

Father: It's pizza. I just followed an old family recipe here, and . . .

Daughter: Let me see that . . . Oh, Dad. [What?] You're missing a page!

Father: Oh, uh, well, uh . . . well I couldn't find the second page of the recipe, but don't worry. I have plenty of experience around the house. Plenty of experience cooking.

Daughter: That's not what mom says.

Father: Well, wait, wait, here let me try a piece first. Here, let me, let me cool this off here. Ohhh, yeah. Oh, this is great stuff.

Daughter: Yeah right. Why are you making that face?

Father: Well, well, it's just, just a little rich for me. That's all.

Daughter: Let me try it Dad. Uh. Dad. You put a little too much salt in it and besides it's burned. [Well . . . ] And what's that?

Father: Oh, well, well, that's just part of my own adaptation to the recipe. I added some pumpkin.

Daughter: Oh, not another one of your surprises. Pumpkin doesn't go on pizza!

Father: Well, okay, well, so what? Uh, what do we do now?

Daughter: Well, how about some cold cereal . . . You can't mess up on that, Dad. 

Vocabulary,

• starving (verb): hungry, famished
  
- Many deer will starve to death in the mountains because of the harsh winter.
•  yuck or yucky: expression showing strong displeasure or dislike for something (informal)
  
- Oh, Dad. I don't like this yucky soup.  
• adaptation (noun), adapt (verb): a change or modification to something, revision
  
- Sometimes it takes time to adapt to the customs and language of another culture.  
• mess up (phrasal verb): (1) to make a mistake or (2) make something untidy or cluttered
  
- If you take your eyes off that boy, he might mess up your entire house.

• "dig in" = let's eat
  - "Okay, the food is ready. Dig in!"

• "eat like a horse" = eat a lot
  - "You'd better cook a lot tonight. My brother eats like a horse."