School’s out around here. It wrapped up last Monday, but that didn’t really mean much for us. The playgrounds might become a bit more crowded and it might be easier to get together with the cousins, but for us, this is the last irrelevant summer vacation for a while.
In the fall, Beangirl will be starting school, as will the Spouse, who will be wading into grad school and all that might bring. Come September, it will be a whole new chapter in our family.
So this year, we mean to soak up as much summer as we can get.
For us – and maybe especially for me because I have a bit of thing about productivity – this summer is best thought of as a sort of Sabbath. A time to break and rest and to focus on being aware. (See, even describing Sabbath, I made a list of three things to do. You would think that being in B.C. would help me work through that. We’ll see…) But I spent this morning in the garden with the kids, being aware of their play and the watering. Blue loves the gravel around the raised garden beds. And he loved that wet gravel looks different from dry gravel. It was beautiful to be aware of his awareness. We were also aware of the raspberry bushes along the fence. The fruit is there and begining to ripen. I made sure to give it lots of water and attention. I’ll be keeping my eyes open and looking forward to berries at breakfast soon.
The grandparents have given us – or perhaps more accurately, given our children – free reign over one of their raised beds. Out came the springtime weeds, out came as many as the gravel pebble as we could seive with our fingers, and in went our specically chosen seeds and seedlings: radishes (because they grow quickly), geraniums (lurid pink ones), beans (bush and pole, green and purple), lobelia (because they are so pretty), tarragon and rosemary (useful), marigolds (to keep the slugs away)and three strawberry plants (we live in hope).
And, in the middle, a potato grew up. We didn’t plant the potato. My mother-in-law calls it a volunteer. Last year, she had potatoes in this bed, and this one stayed behind over the winter. This morning, it presented one hopeful bud. Watering that potato plant in the warmish Vancouver Island sun, I felt like a Moomin. (Have you met the Moomins yet? If you haven’t, check this out, and look under “Characters” to see all their pictures.) Moomins are Finnish trolls: hippy and hippo-ish creatures who live peacefully in Moominvalley, where it is usually summer. They are absurd and creative, domestic yet ready for any mountain adventures. Or explorations by sailboat. Or afternoon naps. Or anything, really. They actively and delightfully live every moment of the day. They pursue joy.
I would like to be considered moomin-minded.
These Sabbath-dwellers were created by Tove Jansson, a Swedish-Finnish author and illustrator. We first encountered the Moomins when Beangirl was about 6 months old, when a friend sent her a stuffed Moomin toy. This Moomin was small, white and cuddly and immediately loved dearly. Blue also fell in love with
Moomin at about the same age. Since then, many Moomins and Moomin storybooks have come to live with the four of us, including this candy tin that helps us through long car trips. You might say that we’ve become something like Moomin fans.
And this is a good week for Moomin fans because The Moomin Cookbook is being released on Thursday. Finnish writer, Sami Malila, has compiled this cookbook that is part introduction to Finnish cooking and part Moominmania, filled with Moominisms and Moominular recipes such as the Snufkin’s picnic pot, the Lighthouse Keeper’s fish pie and potato au gratin for hungry Moomins. I can imagine Sunday afternoon feasts of crisp flatbreads and salmon and the poetically-named cloudberries. Maybe our ripening raspberries will suffice this summer.
And if the Kingdom of God is like a banquet, then I’m sure that enjoying the fruits of our summer from garden to table is something of a glimpse of God at work among us. Speaking of looking forward, that gratin might be something to look forward to when our volunteer bears tubers. But until then, we’ll have to settle into rest in this prolonged Sabbath before us, resting and eating well as the Creator intended, and settling for…
SNIFF’S MEATBALLS (THE BEST MEATBALLS IN THE WHOLE WORLD) as published here
Ingredients
50ml water 100ml whipping cream 25g fresh breadcrumbs 2 onions 1 egg salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika 1 clove garlic 2 tsp dried basil 600g minced beef butter
Sauce
100g ricotta 1 tin chopped tomatoes soy sauce to taste
Method
1 Pour the water and the cream into a large bowl and mix in the breadcrumbs. Leave to one side to allow the liquid to absorb.
2 Dice the onions finely, and add to the mix.
3 Add the egg, salt, spices and beef. Using your hands or a mixer, mix thoroughly until you get a smooth paste.
4 Before shaping the meatballs, place a bowl of cold water next to your mixing bowl. Dip your hands into the water repeatedly as you roll the meatballs: the mixture won’t stick to wet hands.
5 Melt the butter in a frying pan, and brown the meatballs a dozen at a time until they are well cooked on the surface.
6 Place the meatballs in an oven-friendly dish.
7 Between each batch of meatballs, deglaze the frying pan by adding about 50ml water to the hot pan. Pour these juices over the meatballs in the dish.
8 Beat the ricotta into the sieved tomatoes with a fork and add soy sauce to taste.
9 Pour this mixture over the meatballs and place in the oven for about one hour at 225°C/gas mark 7.
10 Serve with boiled or mashed potatoes, or rice.
