The Kids in the 'Hood

Maybe it's because I didn't go back to teaching high school this semester, but I found myself thinking about some of the neighborhood kids I have frequent encounters with, though they're mostly peripheral encounters.

The kid most discussed at our dinner table is a high school student Javier and I dubbed "Kick a Stick" because, with no provocation, he kicked a stick Paco dropped as we walked by him one evening.  Kick a Stick is usually seen at the skate park down the block from us, but I've also seen him race off in the direction of the local high school on his bike.  One morning when walking Paco, a police cruiser headed for the skate park, just where I had seen a young ruffian enjoying the early a.m. breeze on his trucks and wheels .  Sure enough, as Paco and I were on our way home, the cruiser and Kick a Stick, on his board, passed us by. Kick a Stick has also been seen carrying a gas can by our house, but I hope he was just filling up the lawn mower tank.  Good ole Kick a Stick, we believe, lives in a house whose occupants and hierarchy we can't figure out.

The house is down the alley from our house.  I've seen a woman who looks like she's in her twenties there; Kick a Stick; a yappy Jack Russel terrier and her litter of puppies, and a pre-adolescent boy who one morning, again when I was walking Paco, was out by the garage and asked me if I wanted to buy one of the puppies.   At this moment said puppy slipped through the bars of the gate and the kid scooped her up.  I indicated I had my hands full with Paco and he pressed on, asking if I knew anyone else who wanted a puppy.  This is all at 7 in the morning so I think the kid is pretty intrepid and though he didn't make a sale, he may have a business career ahead of him.

Other kid highlights are the brothers across the street: the cry-baby boy and his older brother who patiently bikes with him, though it's clear he desperately wants to bolt down the block.  There's also the boy who remains elusive behind the curtains of his house but who invariably yells out at his barking dog: "BarnIVal, stop barking! BArnIVal! Stop barking!" The emphasis on the various syllables is hilarious and can't be accurately communicated in writing; it sounds like he's taken over the task of some adult who once admonished Barnival the dog but who has since given up.

Sadly, there aren't as many funny girl stories, or many girl stories at all, except we once saw a young girl in a t-shirt that said "50 Years of Excellence" call out "I'm going to get lost!" and give chase to what seemed to be an older sister; the older sister and her friend promptly ran away.

More Adventures in Cooking

Last night I made dinner for one of Javier's colleagues Luke and Luke's wife and baby daughter. I love love love cooking for people and I made of feast of recipes from a "new cuisine" African cookbook Javier's family gave me last X-Mas. I like this cookbook so much I thought I should copy the Julie & Julia blog model and make a recipe (or two) from this cookbook everyday until I've exhausted the contents. I don't think I'm quite that ambitious, however, and I'm also reluctant to work with some of the ingredients, like lamb, or don't know if I'd find the best quality of some of the products, like shellfish.


 The menu was as follows:
 lemon and olive chicken
potato and lentil dumplings
 red rice
 a simple salad of baby lettuces from our garden with a peanut dressing
papaya ketchup
ginger beer
 mint green ice tea
 banana frittes for dessert

 We ate some of the food too fast for me to photograph, but what I did capture is bellow. I also had another successful session of bread making so my bread-baking phobia is over. I baked two loves of Greek olive bread, with cilantro and red onion, with pretty dough braids wrapped around the loaves. Again, it was too good and gone too fast for me to take a photo and the second loaf was given to our neighbor who kindly mows our lawn for us.

Papaya ketchup and Ras Al-Hanout, which is a mix of spices and which I rubbed into the chicken before roasting. It includes ground cardamom, the seeds of which I pulled from the pods and ground myself; I now realize why ground cardamom is $11 in the store: it's painstaking work.

Potato and lentil dumplings, fried and then baked

A peach and blackberry pie I made a few weeks ago with fruit from the farmer's market.