soup’s on: a blog birthday and other delights

 

Hey Hey!

I’m back! You look different. Have you had some work done? Eating more fruits and veggies, maybe?

Well, something’s changed.

I swear you’re even more good-looking than you were back in July. Tell me, tell me — how is that even possible?

When last we spoke, 6lueberries were taking over the Alphabet Soup kitchen. Well, you’ll be pleased to know we polished off every last one of those indigo beauties and haven’t had any other grocery shopping mishaps — unless you count the time I asked Len to bring home a spaghetti squash.

Object in question

Me: That’s not a spaghetti squash. It has a pointy end.

Len: Of course it’s a squash.

Me: It looks too small.

Len: Well, I found it next to all the other squashes and there was even a big sign.

Me: Imposter!

Len: Don’t be silly. This. is. a. squash.

Me: Hokay, if you insist  . . .

Marinara sauce simmering, smells good.

Two hours later, a scream from the kitchen.

Len: OH NO!!

Frantic, disheveled writer comes running, expecting to see a gaping knife wound and lots of blood.

What?!! What’s wrong?!!

Len: Look! It’s a . . . MELON!

Writer displays admirable restraint. 

Me: Is it a muskmelon?

Len: I don’t know.

Me: Well, I tried to tell you. This is just like Aunty Ella and her Chinese soup fiasco. Instead of winter melon, she got watermelon. So much for our low cal alternative. I’ll cook some penne . . .

Spaghetti squash . . . or is it?

Turns out the object in question is a canary melon, and it was delicious! I like it better than cantaloupe but not as much as honeydew. Canary melons are also called winter melons, but they’re not the same “winter melons” my aunt wanted for her soup, which are actually winter gourds. These guys are actually fruits eaten as vegetables. I swear it’s all a conspiracy. Squash espionage abounds. Henceforth, my code name is Melon Head. 🙂

Come to me, my melon-choly baby.

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a colorful chat with cathryn falwell about rainbow stew

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Mmmmm, somebody’s making something yummy! It’s a special stew made with a rainbow of freshly picked garden vegetables — red tomatoes, purple eggplant, green peas and beans, rosy radishes, brown potatoes and yellow peppers. Care for a bowl?

rainbow stew coverIt’s such a treat to welcome award winning author/illustrator Cathryn Falwell to Alphabet Soup today. She’s just published an uncommonly delicious new picture book called Rainbow Stew (Lee & Low, 2013), which contains all the ingredients I love most about good stories: food, family, and fun. 🙂

A very cool grandfather (who makes yummy pancakes for breakfast) makes the most of a rainy summer day by suggesting everyone go outside to “find some colors for my famous Rainbow Stew!”  So he and his three grandchildren don their rain gear and go searching for ripe veggies under the drippy leaves. With treasures like radishes, carrots, cucumbers and cabbage, and time enough to “jump around like grasshoppers and buzz about like bees,” everyone has a muddy grand time.

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tasting first peas to the table by susan grigsby and nicole tadgell

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Peas, please!

Surely they’re the most social of all vegetables — you rarely see or eat just one and they’re happiest out of their shells — canoodling in congenial groups, basking in their perfect orbed greenness, even more resplendent adorned with a buttery sheen.

Thomas Jefferson was certainly onto them. The English or Garden Pea is considered his favorite vegetable, judging by the sheer quantity of pea plantings and number of harvests at Monticello, as well as the amount of garden space regularly allotted to it.

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(Click for Mary Randolph’s Fresh Peas with Mint recipe)

Every Spring, Jefferson and his neighbors had a “First Peas to the Table” contest, a race to see whose peas would be ready first. The winner would host a dinner party, proudly serving his peas to the other contestants. Apparently, Jefferson rarely won, but like his eager friends, fully appreciated the greater prize — honoring a beloved tradition where all could celebrate the joys of gardening and the power of the pea to bring people together.

Since I’ve always been interested in Jefferson’s gardening and gourmandizing, I was happy to see First Peas to the Table by Susan Grigsby and Nicole Tadgell (Albert Whitman, 2012), a lovely story where school children plant a kitchen garden like Jefferson’s and have a pea growing contest of their own.

 

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friday feast: are your tomatoes laughing?

Seriously, who could resist a poetry book called Laughing Tomatoes?

Well, I certainly couldn’t, but I shamefully admit I didn’t actually know about this fabuloso feast of pure delight until just a few months ago.

This Pura Belpré Honor Award-winning bilingual 20-poem collection by Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón and Maya Christina Gonzalez was first published by Children’s Book Press back in 1997. Where was I?!

Likely staring at grumpy, aloof tomatoes and not appreciating strawberries for the “sweet tender hearts” they are, living a bland life full of ho-hum edibles, certainly not hearing the warm morning sun calling to me through my window, and — *shakes head* — totally oblivious to dew, “the fresh taste of the night.”

But now, having read this glorious, jubilant celebration of Spring and its earthly delights, family, culture and community, my life is complete!

I’m happy to say Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/Jitomates Risueños y otros poemas de primavera is one of my favorite children’s poetry books ever. 🙂

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we have two caperlicious winners!

Remember when Mr. Cornelius fell victim to caper-lollipop-induced bad behavior?

You’ll be happy to hear that after learning that hard lesson, he’s been the model of good behavior.

*cue in angelic harp music*

No cookie stealing, no boozing, no bad words, no dumping on the dumplings.

In fact, he’s been so good, he didn’t once nag beg ask to pick the winners for the The Great Lollipop Caper Giveaway.

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