mommy geometry

Belle: Mommy, I don’t like ovals. I won’t eat ovals.

Me: Honey, I wouldn’t say that I generally put geometric forms on the menu.

Belle: Mommy, those ovals. I won’t eat ovals. (pointing to the pizza.)

Me: Oh, olives. Okay pick them off. Though, really, olives are not oval. I think they are more like circles.

Husband (who had been eating pizza and ignoring the situation): They are very oval. And not very good.

Me: Alright, alright, no one eats ovals around here. Fine.

(And yes, I do actually talk like a school marm with my young ones; I think it is funny. )

Mung Bean Sprout Chaat

So here it is. I had none of the necessary ingredients, a cranky baby, no car. But, I also had a craving and an unsettled mind. And use real butter's post got me thinking. Trimming the ends could be a mind clearing moment. So, I went to it. I took a bag of mung beans and sat trimming the ends. Active meditation and spicy pick me up all rolled up into one dish. (Thanks Jen/ use real butter for the inspiration.)


Recipe:
Mung Bean Sprout Chaat
Sautee:
2 cloves of garlic slivered finely
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander powder

Add:
2 T sliced shallot
3-4 handfuls bean sprouts
2 t soy sauce

In a bowl, combine sautéed sprouts, 2-3 T fresh cilantro leaves, 1 T diced shallot, ½ t amchur, mirchi powder to taste, pinch of kolangi, and sliced green chili to taste, sugar and kelp to taste

As a child, your parents seem to be a generalized middle aged and grandparents a basic sort of old. Time is not something to be saved. Existence and life spread out forever in front of you.

And, then one day, all of a sudden, you look into your parents’ faces and something has changed. Somehow for years, decades maybe, you didn’t notice time had been etching upon their visages; and with those changes they are moving further towards leaving you. All of sudden you want to gulp them in, you want to understand them, know who they might have been before you. You want to yell sorry for the old faults, for the slammed doors, for the grimaces, for the tears. You want to go back to that moment when time didn’t matter; when you sat on their laps; when they were the most beautiful, most intelligent, the most. You want something back that you didn’t value enough at the time and something you can’t get back when it’s gone.