Dear Kid,

I have a new favorite dish and its name is Shakshukah.

This is how you make Shakshukah.

Since it’s a tomato based dish, the first thing to do is go outside and see if there are any ripe tomatoes. It turns out there are several that are almost ready but prefer to remain on the vine for a while so you add to your plans a stop at the farmer’s market to get tomatoes.

Once you have tomatoes and have decided that the rest of the ingredients are as assembled as they are ever going to be, you begin.

Boil a pot of water that’s big enough to hold all the tomatoes. Get distracted, forget about the pot, and eventually realize that half the water has boiled off. Sigh. Once you have an actual pot of boiling water, put the tomatoes in and turn off the heat. After some number of minutes (“I think maybe a few more minutes would be good” says Tal), scoop the tomatoes out. Try not to burn yourself. The skins will peel right off. They are even easier to peel when someone else (Tal) peels them.

Chop a couple of cloves of garlic. Better yet, have someone else (Tal) chop several cloves of garlic while you see about cleaning up some of the dishes that have been left in the sink.

Heat some oil in a large pan. Watch Tal add the garlic and stir. After a few minutes, watch her add the tomatoes and mash them up. Add about “that much” from a can of diced tomatoes. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of tomato paste. Watch Tal stir.

Season the mixture with some of the spices that Tal brought. (We added two tablespoons of spice and some salt and pepper. After the whole thing cooked for about 15 minutes we tasted and added more spice. Then we congratulated ourselves on being smart enough to taste before moving on.)

Get out the eggs. Consult about how many eggs are necessary. The recipe said 8 eggs, Tal said 5, and the pan said 6. We went with the pan’s idea. Break each egg into a bowl and gently slide the egg on top of the well-stirred tomato mixture. Cover the pan partway and let the eggs cook about 5 minutes. Check the eggs and decide they definitely need more time than that. Give them another 5 minutes or so and decide they’re done.

Serve with bread. You put the Shakshukah on your plate and then pile it on a piece of bread and YUM!

If you are a very good child, I shall make it for you sometime.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

As you may have heard, we’re in the midst of March Madness. This means that instead of walking a plastic bottle over to the recycling bin, Dad now shoots, misses, and yells, “goal tending.” (Score so far: Dad: 0; recycle bin: 5.)

It also means the TV is tuned to basketball a lot. Possibly even more than a lot. And when it’s not basketball, it’s hockey (Frozen Four preliminary games), because apparently there are real life penalties for going sports-free during this season. (Score so far: Dad: much cheering; Booker: napping interrupted with each score).

The TV remote is getting an incredible workout. I’m sure it works for Dad (I think it’s a man-thing), but the constant channel flipping is scrambling my brain a little. It’s like we’ve invented the new game of baske-hockey. The announcers really don’t sound all that different, but the squeaky sneakers are definitely different than hockey skates. (Score so far: shorts: same length for hockey and basketball; broadcasters: closer to a heart attack than seems necessary; bad commentating: he’s not only in the flow, he’s playing swimmingly—could be for basketball or hockey.)

Dad is (unsurprisingly) commenting on the games, the refereeing, and the sportscasting. The only thing I haven’t heard him talk about is fashion statement of the uniforms. (Score so far: Uniforms: un-evaluated; players: not playing up to in-house standards: officials: need you even ask?)

In other sporting news, I’ve been creating chaos in the kitchen, but so far I haven’t burned anything. (Score so far: successes: 1; disasters: 1.)

Spring break has started here. This is good news for Pi who is still healing. Unfortunately, the freezer seems to be warming up along with the weather. (Score so far: crocuses: happily blooming; appliances: negative 5 b’zillion; Booker: doesn’t like walking in the rain.)

No big plans for the week, although I am hoping to have more successes than overt failures in the kitchen. (Score: TBD.)

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Well, it’s going to be One of Those Days. It’s barely today and so far I have killed the blender (complete with plastic shrapnel flying all over the kitchen), spilled nail polish on my pants, crashed my computer, and lost a hubcap.

I can hardly wait to see what happens in the next hour.

I have a knack for killing blenders. No one has ever accused me of being a culinary genius and I have had my fair share of kitchen disasters  (usually involving burning the bottom of pots, smoking up the kitchen, or both). But I don’t generally destroy appliances. Except blenders. No idea why that is. Any thoughts?

There are days where the blender dies and the nail polish spills. In the 80s they were generically called Bad Hair Days. It just didn’t matter what you did, your hair was simply not going to follow any part of a plan. It was hair throwing a tantrum. With a lot of hairspray. Which made the Bad Hair Day worse because hair looked shellacked and you inhaled a lot of sticky aerosol fumes. Yum.

I have no what the current equivalent is. One of THOSE Days will just have to do for now.

On the positive side, I recovered the hubcap and it is now riding happily inside the car, taking up space and not doing it’s job. If you’re in the mood to bash something, may I suggest replacing the hubcap as a suitable use for excess energy.

Incidentally, I checked with the Car Talk Dudes about hubcaps. According to Tom and Ray, hubcaps look good (and might prevent mushrooms from growing in the backseat) but they serve no other purpose. I am, however, a great believer in a bit of bling, so back on goes the hubcap.

Hope you have a much better start to your day.

Love, Mom

This photo has nothing to do with anything except that it really amuses me

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” -Charles Swindoll

Dear Kid,

Who knew life had a recipe? Aren’t you glad you’re going to college to learn things like that?

Of course, my general philosophy in the kitchen is Start with a recipe and then ignore it. Followed by the corollary Get someone else to clean up. And the all around When in doubt, add chocolate or garlic (but not both).

Not sure what Charles would have to say about that. I just looked him up and Chuck (he really does go by Chuck–I’m not being rude) is an evangelical Christian pastor and he’s got some pretty dandy, non-religious quotes on life. Pretty sure we’ll be seeing his name again.

Spring is clearly bi-polar this year. As far as the tulips are concerned, spring has been here for a while. As far as the rest of us are concerned–HA! Pi is rather annoyed that it isn’t really shorts weather yet. That hasn’t stopped her from wearing shorts, mind you.

Stay warm. Enjoy Spring. React well to life.

Love, Mom