Chapter 6

Apparently Heidi had written to her grandmother who had a long history of spoiling her as a girl. I guessed she had told a sob story of how undernourished she was down in this third-world country and all she needed was a few thousand dollars to stock up on food and have enough to eat for the rest of the year. It must have worked like a charm.

“Okay, Heidi,” I said. “Julio is going to have to go to the livestock auction this Wednesday and buy some more beef cattle, chickens and hogs. You see, we can’t raise enough here right away to fill your order, although I’ll put some of this money aside to buy some of ours when they are ready for slaughter.”

“Cool!” said Heidi, happily.

You see, $10,000 goes a long way in Paraguay. It meant she could get 10 head of cattle, a flock of chickens, and 10-15 hogs…her own little farm. Even then there was a few thousand left. I informed Heidi that we would need to give most of it to Margarita to stock up on any other raw kitchen materials she needed for baking, ordering various candies and prepackaged stuff and so on.

Paula and I had a conversation about it and we decided with all the extra money coming in, it would be fine to let Heidi go back to her old extravagant diet. Besides the money issue, we really didn’t want her to be so unhappy since this could mean she would eventually leave us. She had become such an essential part of the kids’ lives and well being, we didn’t want to risk it. In addition, we even decided to offer her a small salary, so she would now be essentially a nanny to the kids.

The first step was to let Margarita know there had been a change in plans.

“So, Margarita,” I explained, "we are going to change Heidi’s meal arrangement and take off the restrictions we had implemented. We want to keep her happy and well fed, so from now on get her whatever she wants to eat. Please make sure she gets what she wants, even if it’s late at night.”

“But, Raul……” Margarita started.

“Ha ha. Yes, I know, it will be very difficult and expensive. But you will be compensated for your extra time and effort, don’t worry. Also, the food supply shouldn’t be a problem. We will be getting in several head of cattle, poultry and pork livestock. This will be solely to make sure Heidi gets enough food. I’ll let Julio know to butcher and process the cattle regularly enough so you don’t run out. Does this sound okay?”

“Yes sir!” said Margarita, smiling. “Don’t worry, I know all her favorites!”

“Okay. Go to work, and remember, I never want to see Heidi even the slightest bit hungry!”

Margarita nodded enthusiastically.

Next I was faced with the job of creating the space for the new livestock. I had Julio and Roberto clear some brush and build another set of pens. After about a week it was completed and the new cattle, hogs, and chickens were populating the new mini-farm. I watched as Heidi surveyed the cattle as they happily fed from corn piled high in the troughs.

“Eat well, my little dears!” said Heidi, petting one of the cattle. “Oh, so cute!”

“Think they know what’s in store for them?” I asked, smiling at Heidi.

“Ha ha! Guess not. They seem nice and gentle to me. If only they knew they’d be on my plate soon!” she said, bending over with laughter.

She paused for a moment.

“How soon, how soon?” she asked impatiently. I presumed she was wanting to know when we could start slaughtering them.

“Well, Julio said this one here is about the right weight, maybe a week more or so.”

Just then Heidi shooed the other cattle away and started pouring more corn from a bucket in front of the ill-fated cow.

“Eat! Eat! Eat!” she said, laughing.

About a week and half later the meat from her cow was prepared and delivered to Margarita. Heidi was delighted when Margarita showed her how much meat a single head of cattle yielded. Margarita knew some would have to be frozen and did so, but not before setting aside enough for a week of Heidi’s meals.

That night, Margarita made a casserole dish, potatoes and vegetables for us that were quite good. Heidi, on the other hand, was enjoying her personal meat harvest. She had requested cheeseburgers and Margarita’s famous beef brisket. You should have seen the plates of food in front of her. I noticed as Paula watched Heidi sensuously devour the greasy meat, all the while looking to be in heaven.

The next day, wonderfully enough for Heidi, was steak and eggs day. Since Heidi now had chickens raised for both meat and eggs, she could eat fried eggs to her heart's content. This was in addition to the endless supply of steak that Margarita continued to bring from the kitchen.

After almost an hour and a half of eating, Heidi was ready for more.

“Got any dessert?”

“Well,” said Margarita, taken aback. “I have been using my American cookbooks lately and I have a cherry pie that I made this morning.”

“Perfect!” said Heidi, excited. “Bring me some ice cream and we have a deal!”

Heidi got a huge plate and to Margarita’s surprise put half of the pie on her plate and scooped out 4 or 5 scoops of ice cream as well.

A week later, things are pretty much getting back to normal at our house. Heidi was getting over her brush with dieting and the kids were now back in school. With Ricardo in school all day and not around to play with, Heidi instead seemed to spend her time during the day with Margarita eating to her heart’s content.

“Okay, here we go.” said Margarita. “This is recipe number 654, I think it might be kind of rich, but you will let me know what you think.”

Margarita was still working on perfecting her thousand recipes. Since her few months' of deprivation, Heidi was more eager than ever to act as food critic. Margarita had sometimes gossiped privately about Heidi’s gluttonous behavior, but with Heidi’s almost always positive feedback and passionate love of eating, she had found cooking for her very rewarding. She could experiment at will and never worry of anything going to waste as Heidi wasn't one for leaving leftovers.

Margarita usually made the portions as she would for the entire family in order to get it down perfectly, so there was always quite a bit food, or in other words, more than just a sample.

Heidi didn’t always see it this way.

“Oohh! Chicken. This looks good.” Heidi beamed as she started in on a feast one afternoon.

Margarita served Heidi a generous portion, but before she knew it, she was piling more food on Heidi’s plate. Soon all that was left was a chicken carcass, and few empty serving dishes.

“I’ll give it an A,” said Heidi, grinning with pleasure, wiping her mouth daintily with a napkin.

“See you at dinner!” said Heidi as she struggled off her stool and waddled out of the room.

She then went to the living room and crashed on the couch for about an hour.