Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sauteed Edamame & David Plays, Um...The Flute



Okay, I'm fine. Breathe, Kim.

So, David left on Saturday and I am enduring night number two without him. The first night, I had a major panic attack around 8 o'clock in the evening, after the kids were asleep, which involved all kinds of chest heaving and tears and freaking out(on the inside) and didn't really get better until I drank a half bottle of wine.

That did the trick.

Then, I cleaned the house top to bottom. Finally, I just fell into bed exhausted and pathetic. I didn't even have time to imagine ghosts moving the furniture around in the living room while I slept. Good thing.

Last night, I went to bed late and ended up watching Keith Urban concert footage on YouTube. I do this when David goes away. Maybe because Keith has long hair like my husbands or because he's Australian too, or because he sings all these great "love gone wrong" songs when I'm feeling all abandoned or maybe just because if David's home and he hears me listening to Keith Urban, he makes fun of me.

Better to do these shameful acts in the privacy of my vacant apartment.

David arrived safely in OZ and is right now visiting his mum and heading off to meetings. Okay, I wrote that last night. Right now, he's sleeping. It's night there. The kids are doing fine. I've packed their schedules with play dates, school and parties this week to keep them busy. Or, you know, to keep me busy. Lucy and I were cuddling while she was going of to sleep last night and talking about David and she looked at me and said, "He better miss us while he's in Australia."

And to this I say, um, yeah, he better.


So, to make myself feel better I'm going to show you a picture of my husband playing what I believe is the least manliest, least butch instrument on the planet - the flute. I had never heard him play before, but there are stories about his prowess in high school band. I got to see the legend in person last week.


Here we are at my friend Lara's house. Lucy is at the keyboard. Her friend Ruby is playing violin and David is wailing on the manly phallus known as "the flute". And there's me in the corner of the picture, hysterical. I'm sorry, but I couldn't stop.

Question: Were there any boys in your high school band who played the flute? Hot boys? Boys who didn't get their butts kicked by the football, uh, I mean cricket team in the locker room, I mean?


My point exactly.

My husband is, like, the hottest guy I know. Hands down. Watching him climb a sheer rock cliff, with assured-ness, strength and elegance, like he knows the rock, is one of the hottest, most manly things I've ever seen and it never grows old. Ever.

This is him hanging off the ceiling of rock at the gym. On the ceiling, like, horizontal in the air. How can that not be hot?


...But the flute?

I don't know why it seems so bizarre but every time I think of him playing I just dissolve into fits of laughter. Ah...brilliant.

So, tonight for dinner I'm throwing lamb chops in the cast iron for a quick dinner. The kids like to pick up the little chops and eat the meat right off the bone. This Sauteed Edamame dish from White on Rice Couple will be the side. I'm posting it here before I make it.

I've been looking for a new way to serve edamame and this looks promising. One thing - the appeal of edamame for little kids (or at least, mine) seems to be actually popping them out of their shells into their mouths. My kids will eat anything they can crack open with their hands. So I will give them the un-shelled soybeans and have them them shell the beans for me and make the dish with me in the kitchen. This will give them another project to keep us occupied and hopefully, if they get to help make it, they'll be open to eating it in its new incarnation. It works this way for us often.

If you make this dish, love to hear what you think...

xo YM
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The Children are Like Orphans Sauteed Edamame
Brazenly Stolen from White on Rice Couple

Quick and easy, this side dish takes only about 10 minutes. Especially if you buy the pre-shelled soybeans.

Ingredients

2 T Olive Oil
3 Shallots, roughly diced
3 Garlic cloves, mashed or finely diced
1/2 lb Soybeans (shelled, pre-cooked)
few sprigs Fresh Thyme
Sea salt
fresh cracked Black Pepper
1/2 T Soy Sauce

Preparation

1. Over med. high heat, warm saute pan. Add olive oil, then after it warms, add shallots. After shallots soften (@2 min.) lower heat to medium, add garlic and saute for another minute or two.
2. Add soybeans and thyme. Season with salt, pepper, and soy sauce, then continue to cook until soybeans are fully heated (@ 1 min.)
3. Serve warm or allow to cool and serve at room temp.

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11 comments:

Art Dada said...

Is harp a manly instrument? Well let me harp on this: Give kids instruments that will make them cool - guitars, drums, turntables, etc.

As a junior high school orchestra survivor I can tell you that there is no social currency in the flute, clarinet or cello.

I will continue to repeat this message in public forums until parents around the world get the message. Except for Korea where they really seem to like that classical stuff.

The Yummy Mummy said...

Okay, thank you. I thought I was going to be called out for being sexist or something...but I'm not wrong about the flute, right? It's like playing a phallus or something. Or like begging people to pants you and throw you in a trash can. I'm just sayin...

Anyway, Fred, is this really what you're doing on your one day off? two words: Chinatown, Massage.

Kim

Melissa said...

No, really, we had a few guys in high school play the flute. They were all scrawny dweebs. So yeah, David playing flute looks... interesting haha. I play the flute though! For real! And bassoon and oboe and piano...

I love that Art Dada said "turntables" when giving instrument examples. It IS an instrument and it's as hard to learn as any if you really DJ well, and I don't mean top 40. I'm biased though because Steve spins and scratches.

I'll write you about the being away thing.

REC(ession)IPES said...

I get your point, but the one guy in the flute section? Gets to hang out with a LOT of girls.

ntsc said...

Art Dada, it is public fora not public forums and you are wrong.

One of my closest friends took his cello along on his undergraduate interview at Yale. And played it. He went to Yale.

I started on clarinet, switched after 3 years to saxophone, then studyed the flute and was studying the bassoon when I concluded that I wasn't good enough to be serious about it.

Nobody on the football team bothered me more than once after Eighth grade. I might not win, but I could hurt them.

Maria said...

Hilarious! I think in general if people can make jokes about you 'blowing' your instrument, you have to expect phallic jokes.

My husband, whom I consider pretty manly, played the tuba in high school, and that visual still makes me laugh just typing it.

He dressed up as a "test tuba baby" for their Halloween concert, and picturing his 6 ft 3 self in a diaper oompapa-ing away sends me over the edge...

SaintTigerlily said...

I am a big believer that ANYTHING can be sexy with the right background. When I think of flutes, I think of pipes, and when I think of pipes, I think of Pan, and when I think of Pan, I think of Tom Robbins' "Jitterbug Perfume" wherein Pan plays one extremely sexy, raw, awesomely hot figure, if I may.

Oh and also, DUDE, Jethro Tull!

(Ok, I'm dorking out, I have to go to my treatment.)

Anonymous said...

I'm too old to be cool. I love James Galway.

Anne Stesney said...

Actually, I think David looks pretty cute playing his flute.

But yeah, flutes and cool machismo don't really go together. I can't picture the hottest guy in, well, anywhere playing a flute. Or a cool one, for that matter.

I love my husband's list of cool instruments. Maybe some day Walt will play first chair turntable in high school.

Art Dada said...

ntsc, fora is only acceptable if you are wearing a toga, live in an ivory tower or are actively seeking a wedgie.

As for the Yalie cellist, isn't Yale the home of the Whiffenpoofs?

Izzy's Mama said...

Glad to know that I am not the only one who has panic attacks at night when left alone at home with my child. My husband travels all the time so after countless nights so inexplicable noises, and other heart-racing business I finally had an alarm installed.

p.s. Bach's Rescue Remedy helps too!