Flashback Stew Feeds Plenty Cheaply!

[Taylani]

Time Stamp 81 Fall 507

Once more the evening finds the small family inside their living area, seated around the warm fire. The season was winding down and winter was at the door, literally as a cold wind pushes beneath the door jam with a chill. The fire blazed in the fire pit, and a man with blonde hair and scraggly beard sat beside the flames sharpening a knife. Occasionally he would poke the logs inside to stir up the coals, determining if another log need be placed yet or not. His wife, Angelia sat on the other side of the warming fire, a shirt in her hand with needle and thread as she mended it. She was not a seamstress by trade, but her sure stitches worked even if they were not pretty.

Between them Taylani sat on her knees a bowl of washed vegetables to her side and a cutting board in front of her and a knife laying there on. Over the fire was a kettle suspended by a hook, inside the kettle was water already beginning to warm. Inside the water chunks of meat floated, beef if Taylani was lucky and her parents could afford it, if not it might have been squirrel or whatever else her father had hunted either in the wood near the city or in the market. Angelia was taking the time to teach her another method of cooking and feeding a family cheaply.

"Careful Taylani, mind where your fingers are so we not be having Finger Soup!" Angelia warned with a smile, her fingers working over the stitch work slowly. Taylani grins and picks up an onion from the bowl. To peel it she sliced the knife down the entire side of one side. This allowed her to dig her freshly scrubbed fingers beneath the peel but also the very outer layer of skin so that it comes off in one move. Picking up the knife she laid the onion on its side and began to chop. A good cook would make sure that the onions were uniformly chopped by using precise knife technique, but Taylani was new to cooking and cutting. Her chunks sometimes were big, other times were no more then slivers. But there was no Taylani fingers in the mess so she was happy,. When the first onion is cut up, she scoops up the chopped bits and dumped them into the pot, having to do this twice since her small hands could not gather all in one go.

She repeated the step with a second onion, and then scooped up the peels from both onions, stood and scampered to the back door. Opening the heavy door, shivering a little as the early cold snap entered the house she tossed the peels out door an closed it behind her. "Now you must go wash your hands again Tayla.." Angelia reminded the girl.

Red head Taylani stopped in the middle of her gait, sighed loudly and turned back toward the normal cooking area to wash her hands at the barrel with soap before returning to settle gracefully down in front of the cutting board again.

[Taylani]

Taylani's red hair was pulled into a simply ponytail, hanging from the very top of her crown to brush her collar. Free and unbound it would have flowed half way down her back, which was fairly long since she was so tall. Her house dress was worn and patched, but it was comfortable and warm against the chill, and while it lacked adornment it still held a faint remembrance of color to it.

Her hands reach into the bowl of washed vegetables and pulled out what looked like a hollow tube. This might be why they were called 'tubers'. The white flesh was pale, and the vegetable was not firm but more chewy then she liked. However cutting them was going to be a hassle. She laid the first tuber down like she had the onion before her mother interrupted her. "Not like that Tayla, Tubers are cut length wise, not diced. They are too soft to dice well."

Taylani looked up at her mother, blue eyes accepting the correction before turning the vegetable in her hands. The knife slices through the tuber easily, splitting it long ways easily and the edges split automatically. She plucks the two halves up and drops them into the simmering pot.

Two more Tubers are picked up and lain one on top of the other. Angelia's eyebrows raise but she doesn't say anything, letting her daughter find her own way though she knows what is going to happen. Tayla was the time that had to learn on her own at times.

When Taylani tried to cut through both the tubers, the soft plant on the bottom became squished, and juice spread across the cutting board. Picking up the bottom one, Taylani was dismayed to find a mushed pulp. She went ahead and threw it in the pot anyways, figuring that it would still flavor the stew if not be fit enough to eat.

[Taylani]

The next vegetable that was picked up was a bunch of carrots. Their orange roots bright against their leafy green tops. The greens were starting to wilt already, and as winter wears on more and more vegetables will start looking like the greens of the carrots. In the spring potatoes will fill most of the vegetable places on the table as potatoes keep much longer then things like carrots tubers and celery once picked.

The carrots were not as easy to slice through as the tubers, since the roots are hard and unyielding. Each time she brought the knife down she had to strain just a little and then suddenly the root would give way and a loud Bang! was sounded against the cutting board. She was cutting the carrots into disks, round orange circles. Again, just like with the onions, she was not cutting htem expertly. Instead each disk was various sized, and some were not quite disks as the knife had slipped and cut one in half.

However they were chopped until the pile of orange slices was almost mountainous. Carrots were cheap, and often can be found growing wild. so Angelia often "padded" sparse meals with these vegetables to fill the stomach on a budget.

"Good now Tayla, put the carrots in the kettle." Angelia says softly, putting aside the finished shirt she had been mending. She watches her young daughter scoop up orange carrots two, three , then four times before they were all in.

"This stew will be done in time for tomorrows dinner Tayla. If you were old enough to tend the fire you would be required to wake up periodically in the night to ensure the pot is still bubbling and hot. But your not, so Papa and I will do that. However tomorrow thanks to you, we will eat well. Go, wash up, and go to bed Love."