Annual meals: Christmas linguini

We visited John's mother Sally in December and she and John talked about traditions they used to have. Christmas dinner, and then midnight mass, and then around 2am, they would have a seafood pasta before going to bed. John had made a version of that meal for us last Christmas Eve (2006) and it was really good! Talking about it made me hungry.

And, it made me think about traditions, for the kids and for our family in general. Now is the time to start them. And so for Christmas lunch (we had other plans the night before) I made the following dish, and I think I'll try to do it every year. The kids loved it and it will make Christmas that much more special and memorable. Plus it was easy.

Christmas Eve Linguini with Seafood

For our family of four, one pound of seafood (1/2 medium shrimp, 1/2 scallops). Boil and salt water for pasta. After dropping in the linguini, you have about 12 minutes of cooking time. If you have the ingredients ready, that should be plenty.

Melt about three tablespoons of butter into a pan and add a like amount of olive oil. When the fat is hot, add some three or four cloves of chopped garlic, maybe a shallot if you've got it. Once the herbs get aromatic but before they turn dark brown, add the seafood. Stir, until the scallops are opaque and the shrimp is pink. As they are finishing, add salt, pepper and a splash of white wine to taste.

Dish the linguini into plates and dole out the fish, being liberal with the flavored oil. You could sprinkle a little chopped parsley over the plates at this point.

Yummy!

Okay, this was just the lead in to the next in our series: Da Lu Mien (Birthday noodles).

First National Bank of Dad by David Owen

I think the first time I remembered David Owen's name was from an article from The Atlantic about M & Ms. I just searched their site, though, and couldn't find it so maybe it came from somewhere else. He also contributes a lot as a staff writer at The New Yorker.

He's a funny writer and explains things well, and I also read a book of his about buying a house, The Walls Around Us. I vividly remember how he found the longest lasting paint ever--this gray paint they use to paint nuclear reactors and which is basically one extra layer of protection against meltdown. He wanted to use this paint on his house but it cost hundreds of dollars a gallon or something.

His latest books have been about golf and I'm not that interested, although I do read the articles in the New Yorker about the game, and his most recent piece was about nicknames.

Okay, so I just finished reading his short book from 2003, First National Bank of Dad: The Best Way to Teach Kids About Money. Here's the review: the idea is interesting and worth trying, the book is not so great and maybe is a library check out.

The idea: Owen wanted to encourage his kids to save money but the traditional way: "Here's $10 allowance--let me just take $2 from it to put in your savings account (i.e. you'll never see it again)," makes "saving" seem like a tax that should be avoided. And a 3% per annum interest rate doesn't really thrill anyone either (maybe it will as the economy implodes. Anyway). So he set up a bank on his computer where his kids would earn 5% interest per month. Suddenly, the benefits from saving are clear.

A lot of the book is also about just giving financial responsibility to your kids. Rather than having emotional arguments about whether you're going to buy them a souvenir or a candy or cds or a video game, let them use their money however they like. The point of the bank is that they recognize that saving is a good way to "use" the money. Another good point he makes is that most of us learn about money by making mistakes. By giving kids a stake early, they can make those mistakes earlier and at less cost. There are lots of anecdotes about his kids's economic education told in Owen's usual clear and humorous manner.

So that's about 160 pages (wide margins). And then he tacks on an extra chapter all about reading to your kids. From the examples given, this book is directed at middle to upper middle class parents. Most of them appreciate the power of books. I certainly don't disagree. This chapter is totally unnecessary. I feel like he wrote a short book, realized he owed 200 pages, then realized he would never get a chance to write about parenting again and typed out some more pages about reading. Oh, also his wife writes books for kids. I don't know if that's related.

All in all, worth knowing about, maybe not worth owning.

Austin's birthday

Five years ago, Julie and I became parents. This is how we celebrated on Saturday:

Audiobooks

I only subscribe to a few hours of weekly podcasts (Radiolab, Wait Wait, This Life) but I've been enjoying them. The next step: audiobooks. I don't read as much as I want to, but I do spend and inordinate amount of time in the car, grocery shopping and walking the dog.

So, I'm diving into the world of audiobooks. First up, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. His memoir about his life up through the end of his stand up career (i.e. the only movies he discusses are The Jerk and Pennies From Heaven), is pretty good. I read a review somewhere that suggested listening to the audiobook rather than reading it so that you can hear him do his routines. It was great! And went by very quickly. And I feel like I read a book. Oh, that was just about the experience; the book itself: okay. Interesting for Steve Martin fans, and fun to hear some of the old routines (and the inspiration for some of them, like Happy Feet) but it's neither hilarious nor deeply moving. More like chucklesome and sweet.

I'm also getting some audiobooks from the library for the kids. At school, Austin likes the book listening station and these kids could listen to us read all night. Instead, we've now got an audiobook of The Wizard of Oz and I've requested Charlotte's Web next. Any other suggestions?

Skating

Julie's been pushing for more outdoor winter fun, and thanks to Pauline's suggestion that we visit the Frog Pond in Boston Common, our family has become a family of skaters! We all own our own skates, even.



Clearly, there is one "good skater" among us.

Breaking a phobia

So, I mentioned before that we've read a lot of books with porcine protagonists. Well, I'm starting a band with that name. No, wait, that's not right. I meant to say that there are lots of wolves in those stories as the bad guys.

And so, Austin developed a fear of wolves. Lupophobia? He's said that he's had nightmares about wolves, and before bed he asks me if there are wolves in the house.

I've tried to explain that wolves don't live around here, that wolves don't eat people, and all that, but he's still scared.

So I borrowed Never Cry Wolf from the library. It's a beautiful film by Carol Ballard based on the memoir by Farley Mowat. Mowat spent six months in arctic Canada studying wolves to see if they were truly behind the loss of the caribou herds. In fact, they weren't, and Mowat's book helped change the perception of wolves from scary to admirable.

Ballard's film is an amazing blend of drama and natural footage.

Anyway, after watching half the movie, Austin has been talking about how he wants to go north and spend time with the wolves.

The place to be seen

Went to the Boston Children's Museum this morning with our neighbor. While there we met one of neighbors who also has kids at the same daycare and Julie met a colleague of hers from the hospital. And I saw Jeff D! (No full names here to prevent Googling!) From high school. He looks pretty much the same. And apparently I do, too, since he recognized me first.

Strange evening

So tonight, after reading stories to the kids, Julie and I both fell asleep. This was around 7:30.

Well, eventually we got up, watched a video and then cleaned up the kitchen. Julie threw a pear core into the compost. "Who ate a pear?" I asked. We looked at each other, perplexed.

"Must have been Mari," Julie said. "She did say after her bath that she wanted fruit."

"When did she eat it?"

"Remember Austin came in and woke us up, and telling us that Mari was downstairs? He was laughing about it."

"So she came downstairs and ate a pear by herself at the table?"

To cap it off, we had brownies for dessert and she had two bites before she put her piece in Boo's food bowl. She prefers fruit.

That's why we call her "The Fruit Baby."

Politics

Okay, I'm an Obama man. I was so excited when he won Iowa. I feel like I can tell my kids that they really could be president one day.

And then Hillary won New Hampshire. I'm even more excited. On February 5, I get to cast a vote that will actually make a difference in a national contest. This is the best!

I'm hoping that the flukes that gave us this voting schedule will make clear the need to reform the whole primary process and we can wean ourselves off of the pandering to ethanol, etc. that the current system demands.

Sorry, back to kids and culture next post.

Kosher Matzo Ball soup?

lI had a weird revelation a couple weeks back when I made matzo ball soup. The matzo balls were made with egg, and the soup was made from chicken. Isn't this prohibited under the "do not boil a kid in its mother's milk" rule? Is Matzo ball soup trayf?

Where's a rabbinical scholar when you need one?