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Every day, during dinner, we play a game we call “like – didn’t like” game, where each of us share one thing that happened to us today that we liked, and one that we didn’t. We learned this at a parents workshop we participated years ago (Adler Institute, I highly recommend by the way!), the main idea is to make our kids share real things they experience during their day.
If you are a parent, you probably know that usually when you ask you kid “how was daycare” they answer “ok”, and when you ask them “what did you do?” they answer “we played in the yard” if they were in a “sharing mood, or “don’t remember” if not.. I guess they are not born with this will to share with us the experiences that we as parents really want (and need) to hear about, which doesn’t prevent them from babbling non-stop about anything else, right? 🙂 We play this game ever since my first born (now almost 4 years old) was 10 months old. No, we are not idiots if you are wondering, thank you 🙂 , obviously she didn’t answer back then, nor did she understand what we were saying, but still, we’d go one by one, and when it was her turn we would speak up for her saying what we think makes sense from her daily experiences, and this way it became a family dinner tradition, and as her speaking abilities got better, first words, then sentences, she shared things more and more relevant to the conversation, and today she actually shares true stories from her day (real things that make her happy and that make her sad, that we wouldn’t have heard about otherwise), and she even makes stuff up for her little sister (that doesn’t speak yet).
Today when we play this game there’s real sharing from her side, and one of the things that are being emphasized in the course is that the parents should share real experiences from their day, this is due to the fact that these little ones are real good in identifying a fake experience and emotion. So we follow along with the recommendations and we try to share real experiences from our day, simplifying them as possible according to age obviously. Yesterday during dinner, when it was my turn to share something I didn’t like from my day, I remembered that in the morning, somewhere on Facebook kingdom, some nice mommy published a recipe she made, with a really nice picture of the result, and wrote that her baby loved it and ate with pleasure. Along side some very nice responses that mentioned how nice her muffins look, there was one respond that said something like “what’s nice about them? They look like something a cow chewed”. Now without getting into the discussion about what’s beautiful and what isn’t (I’ll just note that to me green food represents that it is natural like green leafs, and for that matter I don’t think meat is that aesthetic dish even if you take out the health and moral arguments out of the discussion), the fact that people on the web allow themselves to respond in such ways, and this one can even be considered mild – I’ve seen worse obviously, amazes me every time I encounter it.. Generally speaking, I keep running into online conversations that I find so nasty, I chose this example simply as it is fresh in my mind now.
I feel like people rush to type the first response that comes to their mind, and hardly ever stop for a minute to consider how the receiving side will interpret it. When you write something, you don’t have the accompanying tone of speech, intonation, and body language (as you do when you talk face to face) to help the reader understand what you really meant, so that many things are understood differently, to the worse usually, when they are in writing. I keep seeing nasty responses online, and it really gets to me! And really, as much as I thought about it, I just couldn’t find why that woman had to make sure she thinks its repulsive.. I mean, the mother who posted it, she worked hard to make a nourishing dish for her baby, she saw he liked it so she figured she’d share so that other mothers can use it as well, she took a nice picture, shared it, really was all about sharing valuable data with others, why would someone find it really important to let her know she thinks it doesn’t look good (how did that contribute to the discussion?)?! I have to say I see dozens of posts I don’t like a day, you know what I do about them? I move on to the next one.. Seriously, the mother who responded with the nasty comment, just so you’ll know, being supportive is known to be much better for your facial skin care 🙂 (though I doubt you are a reader of my vegan recipe blog).
Going back to our sharing game during dinner, when it was my turn to share I mentioned I didn’t like the fact that someone made a nasy comment today. So then my daughter asked “who is she?” and I answered I don’t really know her, so she asked “so where did this happen” and I explained it was on the internet, so then she asked “in your computer? the one that’s here in the living room?”, which led me to take a mental note to self: the concept of the internet and a strange Facebook discussion are just too early for her age 🙂 .
Anyways, the recipe today is for a very creamy pasta gravy, made from cashew and pumpkin. You can also use some coconut milk here to add creaminess, but I don’t really fancy coconut. What’s in the pictures is whole wheat pasta, but this gravy will go well with whatever pasta you like, including gluten free ones, like soba noodles, rice noodles, etc.
- 500 gram fuzzily shaped pasta (or other pasta of your choice)
- 500 gram piece of pumpkin (about 1¼ cups pumpkin cubes)
- 200 gram raw cashews
- 1 tea spoon nutmeg
- 1 tea spoon salt
- 1 table spoon olive oil
- Optional (but recommended!): 1 tea spoon sesame oil
- optional: handful of pumpkin seeds and some basil leaves
- Place the pumpkin in a pot with boiling water, and cook until it is soft (soft enough so you can smash it with the back of a fork). It should take about 20 minutes.
- In the meanwhile, place the cashews in a bowl with hot water and soak for 10 minutes.
- When the pumpkin is soft enough, place it along with the drained cashews, the nutmeg and the salt in a blender, and blend until it reaches a smooth and creamy texture.
- Cook the pasta according to the manufacturer instruction on the box. A minute before the pasta is ready, heat a large pan with one table spoon olive oil and one tea spoon sesame oil, add the pumpkin gravy in and mix, then drain the pasta and add it to the pan. Mix to make sure all pieces are nicely coated with the pumpkin gravy. Serve warm, optionally with some pumpkin seeds and basil leaves on top.
P.S.
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Moran
8 תגובות
I wanna try it now!! but I don’t have cashew nuts at home….
Will it work with almonds, or any other kind of nuts?
Hi Margaret,
Sure, almonds (preferably blanched), in the same amount, will work just fine here.
What pumpkim is best used for this dish?
It shouldn’t matter much, use your favorite
I used a butternut squash – lovely colour and amazing taste.
Oh I’m sure, I love butternut squash! Thanks for the update 🙂
Made this at Christmas. Super yummy!
Happy to hear that 🙂