Little Vespucci's and My Personal Bean Craze

What to say about today…

I’m tired after threedaysofnonstopbusiness (work, math, and an abbreviated English class with the girls). After tomorrow morning, though, I’m home free…Mattie, Mom, and I are going to spend the night in Jefferson at a bed and breakfast with Grammie, Aunt Robin, and cousins. A special treat from Grammie. And after that, on Saturday…the SAT. Last night I started feeling nauseous as I lay in bed thinking about it. What is my deal?

When I arrived at the Crowe’s today , the house was strangely hushed. Deb was on the phone, but she pointed out the back the back door and told me the kids had gone “exploring” down to the lake next door. They had set their watch alarms and were supposed to be heading back to be home for school. I went outside and looked for them, but there was only the dry, bare pasture and a cold, stiff February wind. No kids in sight. I walked to the fence and called for them, and saw some movement in the brush across the field, plus a silent black cow adorning the landscape. She looked a little puzzled, but wasn’t complaining. Maybe she knew the visitors.
I yelled for Bronwyn several times, but I could see that no one could hear me. So I tested the tight new barbed wire and cautiously squeezed through it (not noticing, of course, that there was a gate a few yards away with less perilous squeeze room).

The cow regarded me placidly, but she didn’t have any horns. That’s a good thing, because I still retain a vestige of that childhood fear of cows…
Soon they saw me and came running, full of their adventures. Bryce, the neighbor kid, was with them.

“We were trying to come home, but Bryce is still on the other side of the ditch,” Broderic explained, make a wrinkly sort of sniff with his nose like he often does when he’s talking to me, “Bryce is kinda chicken about these things.”
Brent poured everything out to me in tumbling, glumped up bits of sentences.

“We were trying to get away from home.” He said, “We went exploring by the lake and then Broderic and me were trying to get home, but we couldn’t find ourselves.”
Yes, well, that is a problem.

“My arms are covered in prickys and scratches,” he continued, rubbing the offended arms vigorously. Bronwyn emerged from the brush and the exiled Bryce found his way around the “ditch” without falling in. Tucker came running up and grabbed me, obviously elated.

“It’s my bolth-day, Cassie!” That it was. We went back to the house to start school. I worked with Bron and the boys did other things. Poor Bryce had to go home, a looking pained and lonesome.

It’s fun being with the kids. Yesterday, I was in Bronwyn’s room and Broderic came in, glanced around, and said, “Huh, I thought I smelled you in here.” I hope that’s a good thing  Bronwyn and I are reading Hans Brinker, and it’s the perfect part of school time when we curl up in a blanket and she snuggles up to my shoulder while I read to her. I love seeing her get interested in the book. Whenever we stop she begs for “just one more…” and I really don’t mind obliging!

Tonight I was trying to convince Mom that falafel is yummy… but she didn’t buy it. At first she only thought it sounded weird, but when I told her that you make it with chickpeas, I lost her forever. There was that diet back in the early 90’s that ruined her forever…

Well, I found a recipe for falafel in the newspaper accidentally, and since I’m in a current fascination with beans of all kinds, I want to try it. I had no idea you could sprout any old bean in a jar. I should have known from seeing our compost, though I can’t admit to giving much study to a pile of rotten food. I love sprouts, and we’ve made alfalfa sprouts before, but now I want to try sprouting pintos and garbanzos and whatever others I can get my hands on. We all know what a bad rap beans get…but I think they’re underrated and misunderstood little vegetables. Wait…are they vegetables?

Yeah, will, I think it would be great to make a sandwich like the one in the newspaper, which we actually had once at Mrs. Burklin’s for geography class (on Israel, I think). You make the falafel balls out of sprouted chickpeas, garlic, eggs, and other ingredients, then chop them up and put them in a pita with salad and yogurt and…wal-lah! A sandwich my Mom will sure miss out on. Oh well. It’s just a fantasy unless I manage to

1) Induce Mom to buy garbanzo beans (well, she did agree to)
2) Actually sprout the garbanzo beans
3) Actually make falafel
4) Somehow procure some real yogurt
5) Make pitas some time in the near future
6) Get around to putting them all together

Since I don’t seem to be around the house that much for now, I don’t know if I’ll do it, but I did try a good bean recipe in the crockpot today. I liked it, and I could detect a measure of approval even from the less-bean-eaters of the family. It was just pintos with two chopped up pork chops, onions, minced garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, a little oregano, and two dried chili peppers, which added some spice. We have yet to find out how they rate gastronomically.