Here are two stories that T-boy (3) told to Jonski Papa the other day, while I was at work and the big brothers were at camp.

There was a big old river and it goes “Kersplash!” and it was very large. There was exactly a dry place where they would roll over. There’s no crocodiles in there.

Once upon a time there was a baby dragon. And it was crying for its mama. The daddy was very large. The daddy dragon liked the baby dragon. And the baby was going toward his daddy. And the daddy dragon said “Where is my baby?” Oh he’s upstairs, and he was walking upstairs, and this lead to his room, but the baby wasn’t there.

He also has a tendency to get words all mixed up, which makes me think of spreading activation theories of memory and try to figure out how things are connected. For example, the other night he said “pickle” for “nipple” and today he said “it will cheerful me up.” In the not-quite-so-cute-at-the-time category, he was on the verge of a tantrum yesterday because he wanted his “david” swimsuit. I had no idea what a david swimsuit might be. (We have no hand-me-downs from Davids, so it can’t be that. I couldn’t figure out how the too-big-in-the-waist-with-no-drawstring shark swimsuit might be David. David the sculpture? That David doesn’t even wear a swimsuit and such behavior wouldn’t be allowed at the city pool! :^). Luckily, Jonski Papa eventually figured out that he meant the Harley Davidson swimsuit (which was a hand-me-down, and which Z-boy (the first recipient in the family) used to call “Harleyson David”). Another disaster averted, and another insight into the toddler brain.

We’ve been getting fava beans for the last few weeks, and they’re quite an intriguing ‘fleeting seasonal treat’. Fava beans require a little extra effort - first you shell them, then you blanch the beans in boiling water (2 to 5 minutes, depending on how firm you want the beans). After draining and cooling the beans, you slip the edible part out of a tough ’shell’. The remaining bean/seed is ready for use in various recipes. They have quite a unique taste and texture and are worth the extra work.

We’ve made the first recipe below three times now, and prefer it with leeks over onions. I haven’t had parsley or cilantro, but made it once with basil. Below is the recipe as it appeared in our CSA newsletter, which is slightly different from the source they attribute it to. This is good with middle eastern or italian-influenced meals. Any oily residue from the salad should be sopped up with a good crusty bread.

FAVA BEAN SALAD
(from Capay Organic Farm CSA “Farm Fresh To You” website)

1 lb. fava beans, shelled
2 onions or leeks, finely sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt and pinch of pepper
1 Tbsp. parsley or cilantro

Boil the shelled beans in slightly salted water until tender (2 to 4 minutes). Drain and cool, then slip out of their shells. Blend oil and vinegar together with salt and pepper. Stir in onion and garlic. Place Favas in serving dish and pour oil and vinegar dressing over them. Sprinkle with chopped herbs.

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The next recipe is based on one in James Peterson’s Vegetables (p 129). This was one of the first times I’ve used fennel, and the fennel bulb I got at the market was kind of small, so I’m not sure I prepared it properly. I also didn’t have any parsley (again). I didn’t like this salad as much as the previous one, but I might try it again some day with a larger fennel bulb (and parsley!).Favas, Fennel, and Lemon Salad

1 cup fava beans
1 shallot, minced (I substituted scallion)
juice of small lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small fennel bulb
3 Tab finely chopped fresh parsley or basic
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a bowl, combine the beans with the shallots, lemon juice, and olive oil. Cut the branches and fronds off the fennel. Peel the stringy outermost membrane off the fennel bulb with a vegetable peeler and slice the bulb crosswise into paper-thin slices with a vegetable slicer, then add the slices to the beans.

Chop the parsley - it’s important to chop the parsley just before serving so it doesn’t lose flavor - and add it to the beans and fennel. Season to taste with salt and pepper while tossing gently. Serve at room temperature.

I’ve been reading Hungry Planet: What The World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. The book is a series of photographs and descriptions of families around the globe photographed with the food they eat in a week. (The NPR site has an interview along with some photos and other highlights.) Some random observations of mine…

It’s quite intriguing to see the variety of food eaten in different countries. I was surprised at how many different families have watermelon! I was surprised by the sugar consumption in Ecuador - 106 lbs per capita (5th behind the US (158 lbs), Cuba (!!) (137), Mexico (109), and Australia (106)). I suppose this was most surprising because they show it in the context of a poor rural family that primarily eats potatoes and such, but also consumes a 5 kilo cake of brown sugar each week. I was startled to see that 70% of Egyptian females and 64% of males are overweight. But then I looked at the chart in the back and noticed that more than half the countries have more than half the population overweight (the US, Australia, and Kuwait lead the pack - or perhaps ‘bring up the rear’ is a better perspective on it!).

Many observations are not too surprising - more developed countries have more packaged foods. For some countries they profile multiple families (Australia, China, Japan, US), and in those cases it was interesting to see the contrast in food.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the countries where extended family are more commonly in the pictures - and where the text mentions how common it is for friends and neighbors to just drop by and share meals. It could also just be a selection bias - the more socially outgoing people might have ended up being the ones discovered for the photo shoot. And of course it’s really hard to tell the overall direction of the culture from these photos and short vignettes, it’s just something that struck me as I read the book.

In the Japan chapter, everything is laid out very artistically - almost like the bento box lunch for the younger daughter as described in the text. I’m sure that was intentional. This is halfway through the book but it looks the most ‘foreign’ to me. I think it’s because in many other countries, there’s a lot of fresh food, or readily identified basic staples (potatoes, corn, etc). But in this photo, so much of the food is packaged, and the packaging has very little western writing or pictures. This family eats more than a dozen types of seafood in a week - amazing! And the condiments: I’ve heard jokes about people whose refrigerators are stuffed with various sauces (mostly Asian) that get used once or twice a year. This family has 25 or so items in the condiments category, and I bet quite a lot of it is used weekly.

I’ve been trying to think through what would appear in a photo of our family. It would definitely differ based on the season (true of most families). Because of our CSA membership, this time of year the table would be overflowing with seasonal produce. But it would also have quite a bit of packaged crackers and other snack foods. And what would it look like in February? I have a pantry with jars of various grains and dried beans, but when do I use most of them?

Finally, I take heart from this book to learn that picky young eaters are found in cultures around the globe :^)

The book was due yesterday and I can’t renew it - indicating someone else has a hold request - and I’m trying to figure out if I should continue paying 25 cents a day until I can finish it (I need probably 4 more days) or if I should just return it and put in a new hold request of my own. The library system owns 5 copies and 6 holds are ahead of me, so it would be probably at least another month before I got it back - I think I’ll invest in the fine…

(update: the university library has a copy, so I plan to check out that copy and return the other to the public library pool.)

We’ve been getting scads of scallions from our CSA. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to do with them. Unlike a certain Jonski-grandmotherJ, I don’t like to eat them raw in tossed salads - but unlike Jonski-grandpaP, I don’t eschew cooked onions (not even ’scallops’, the term he mistakenly used when thinking garlic scapes were scallions). However, even From Asparagus to Zucchini doesn’t have many suggestions for scallions beyond recipes that use 1 or 2. But of course Madhur Jaffrey didn’t let me down! World Vegetarian has a recipe for scallion cakes on page 466. I had enough time and toddler entertainment to try them tonight. At dinner, Z-boy asked me how I made them (not that he ate any, mind you!), and this is what I told him (with addition of amounts for those who might want to try to do this at home):

Scallion Cakes

First I mixed 3.5 cups of flour with 1 1/4 cups warm water. I mixed and mixed and mixed and formed it into a ball. Then I put that in a bowl covered with a damp towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

While waiting, I chopped 12 scallions (white and green parts) very thinly. (Recipe says to use 10, but I’d had to trim off lots of the green due to sliminess so used 12.)

When the 20 minutes was up, I put flour on a work surface and rolled the dough out into a big circle, 20 inches in diameter. Then I spread some oil on it (5 tablespoons peanut oil officially, but I used canola since I didn’t have peanut), then sprinkled on the scallions.

Next I rolled it up tightly into a long snake. I divided the snake into 4 pieces. With each piece, I twisted the ends in opposite directions to close them off, then put the piece on one end and smooshed it down into a pancake. (For Z-boy, I used lots of hand motions to demonstrate all this.) [And in real time, this is where I wondered: "Is this right? Should these be thinner?" I still wonder! Although now I see that the cookbook says to roll them out to 7 inches. I overlooked that step, and suspect mine were smaller and thus too thick.]

I heated ~3 Tab oil (canola sub for peanut again) in a frying pan over medium high. When hot, I put the first pancake in the oil and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then flipped it over to cook for another 3. [My oil was initially too hot and the first one got very dark, but 3 minutes per side was perfect for all subsequent cakes.] I set it to drain on a paper towel, then added 1 Tab oil to the pan (I used light sesame oil from here on out), and cooked the next one. (For each subsequent pancake, add 1 Tab oil before cooking.)

Madhur writes that you should cut into wedges, and eat immediately. They can be wrapped in foil and kept for awhile but will lose their crispness. The foil bundle can be reheated in a medium oven for 15 minutes, or one at a time in a microwave for about a minute.

We ate them with a soy-based dipping sauce (from a recent chinese take-out meal) and some mango chutney. The main entree was snap peas stir-fried with ginger, chicken, and a touch of sweet-and-sour sauce (from same take-out meal).

They were tasty, yet relatively easy and fun to make. Jonski Papa thought they were a little bit dense and heavy, and wondered if they might be improved by the addition of a leavening agent. Perhaps best of all, I used up a dozen scallions! But we (two adults) only ate half (2/3rds if I can convince myself to throw away the one that got so close to burning…) so maybe it shouldn’t really count as ‘using up’ until they’re all eaten!