Stoop labor

Sunday, Debbie needed some raw peanuts shelled and peeled. The girls enthusiastically embraced the idea of helping shell peanuts, so the three of us sat on the front porch and developed a great division of labor for shelling the peanuts. At first, Julia cracked and shelled, I cracked and handed peanuts to Lily for shelling, and I peeled the peanuts that both girls shelled. Soon Lily discovered accidentally that she could crack the peanuts if she stepped on them, so our assembly line became much more efficient. Then Lily discovered that she could jump on the peanuts and get the same result (Julia then discovered that she could do this barefoot), so our assembly line became more amusing to all three (the added amusement for me being watching Lily's intense concentration as she aimed for so small a target as a peanut and seeing where she would actually land). Throughout it all I was just chuckling over, and giving thanks for, the eagerness, intensity, and persistence of these two over such a menial task. Who needs Backyardigans videos or Nintendo Wii when you've got kitchen prep or yard work to do? (Though Nintendo has a cooking game for the Wii system, called "Cooking Mama: Cook Off for Wii", so I suppose it won't be long until they come out with "Stoop Labor for Sony Playstation")

A short story by Julia

Julia wrote this story tonight while we were fixing dinner.

A short story by Julia

Chutney, Britney, Whitney, Julia, & Lily

The other night I made one of my favorite dinners, lentil dal and naan. We are reasonably diverse in our cooking, but Indian isn't something we really do at home much, so I joked to Debbie just after we sat down to eat, "why haven't I put the chutney out?," the joke being to imply that we just have chutney lying around the house all the time. She thought I was serious, though, and replied that maybe we did have some homemade chutney. Well, if Deb thinks we have something in the kitchen, chances are she's right, so I hopped up and started looking through our stash of home-canned goods in the pantry.

I stood up on a chair and craned my head into the upper recesses of the pantry. Hmmm...here's a jar of home-canned tomato marmalade...when did we make that? and why? and why did we save it, considering it was such a letdown?...Another jar of tomato marmalade...Now, what's this? Not labeled - looks like...ummm...pepper jelly? Ah! What's this stack of four jars? Bingo! Homemade peach Chutney!

I set the jar on the table. The lid was still sucked down into a concave shape and it held tight when I pried at it with my fingers. I pried it loose with my knife and it made a satisfying "shlup" when the seal finally gave. The old adage, "when in doubt, throw it out" ran through my mind, leaving me a bit disappointed and conflicted. Sniff. Smells okay. Look askance at it - kinda brown, but the pieces haven't turned to mush and the juices are clear. Taste - tastes great! I piled it on.

We start speculating. "When did we make this stuff? Well, let's see, it was in our old house, so that was three years ago. Further, we haven't canned anything since....since...yikes! since before Julia was born!" "Julia, this food is older than you!" (She got a kick out of that.) Deb suggests that maybe the family member on immune suppressant therapy shouldn't be the first person to test our home-canning skills. I proceed to eat heartily of the stuff anyway.

Anyhow, the next morning I was still alive and feeling great. Visitors to our house beware if we serve you Indian, you're going to be facing down a 5-year old jar of peach chutney. Fortunately there are a host of Indian restaurants in Raleigh where we can take you if Indian is really what you want.