food for the hungry

Small One screams his head off when he is hungry. I’m sure there is nothing particularly unique about this, but as a first-time parent, I am amazed at his singular focus on food when he needs it (although as a formerly pregnant woman, perhaps I should be more understanding). If I need to carry him to go to our feeding spot or fill a water bottle, he starts alternating between crying and a wide-eyed, desperate panting, his head bobbling back and forth, searching, searching. Sometimes he latches on to my bicep and sucks with all his might and then cries with disappointment.

Are the Somali babies in Kenyan and Ethiopian refugee camps crying because of hunger today or does a baby get to a point where it can’t cry for food any more because it has no more strength?  Yesterday we read the BBC’s special report about the drought in the Horn of Africa. Undoubtedly this is a long and complicated story, but here is the short version: thousands are dying by the day, they have no food, up to 10 million people could be affected.

Today I am trying to imagine a Somali woman my age in one of those camps after her long trek from Somalia to a refugee camp in Kenya. She has more children than I. She is bone weary from exhaustion. She has buried a child or two on the journey. Does she have milk left for a baby or two?  What does she feel when her babies cry and yet she has nothing to give them? I am trying to imagine, but I cannot.

There is no worse feeling in the world than being unable to give your small, innocent baby the food he needs.

“What would Jesus do if he was walking through one of those refugee camps?” I wondered, and the answer in my heart was simple: He would feed them.

And so should we.

frozen lasagna and other things

The thought of writing has not been too appetizing for me these days as evidenced by the lack of current content. We are still eating, and I am still cooking. But I will also admit to a few trips to the freezer section of the grocery store these days for frozen lasagna (a meal we’ve had four times now). My only excuse is a short attention span that is currently consumed by craft projects, so that’s receiving the full weight of my creative energy. Goodbye blog, in other words.

I am still loving the cooking, creating and eating process, so here are a few recaps of Husband’s and my exploits in the kitchen.

My Christmas present from Husband was a subscription to Delicious magazine, easily one of my favourites from Australia (although this is the UK version). When I received my first one last month, I turned to it for many an evening meal including the Indian version of a chicken salad, photographed above. A lovely alternative to the typical chicken salad, this one has mango, chicken, mango chutney, yogurt, curry spices and coriander in it.

Husband made this fantastic warm beef Mexican salad. It was perfect for the warm late spring days that we’ve been having.

Then we had an Easter lunch of a roasted leg of lamb – the same as our Christmas lamb – with an Easter salad and a delicious potato salad. Our desire is to keep a consistent food thread at our meal table for Christmas and Easter, so that our children will connect the two days in the hearts, heads and stomachs. This was the Easter salad, a fantastic recipe, full of crunchy green veggies. It was fresh tasting and packed with great flavors.

For my daily lunches – when I’m not eating frozen lasagna, ha! – I tried a few quick and easy veggie stir fries. This one has egg in it if I remember correctly. I could not say what else went into it except the other basics: broccoli, carrots and brown rice.

And finally Husband made these burgers that made my mouth salivate. I have no idea what he put in it, but the burger was tasty, and the sweet chili sauce was a classy touch instead of the typical ketchup. Who would have thought that asparagus could work on a burger? The dense whole wheat buns were great as well. We should call this the Not Your American Burger burger.

That’s all for now, folks. With the Small One’s pending arrival, I have no idea how much cooking, photographing or writing I will be doing. I will probably be eating though. One never knows how having children will change my cooking. I have often wondered if breast milk can be used for anything other than feeding babies. Oh the uncharted frontiers to come…