This morning my husband said, “Chase and Porter, we’re making stew that usually takes all day, but we’re doing it in thirty minutes, come peel this garlic.”  Chase looked up from his jam bread and Porter tore away from his Indian chicken curry over rice, his hair fanned straight up in the back like a peacock’s plume.

“Is this like a science experiment?”

“No, it’s a pressure cooker.  See this garlic, can you smell it?  No?  That’s because it’s covered in this stuff.  You have to peel it, and cut off the hard flat end.  Then you smash it with the side of the cleaver and chop it up fine.”

“Is this going to be like steak at Teppanyaki’s?”

“It’s going to be like steak in a stew which will feed five people for two days instead of two people for one day.  Stir the garlic in the frying pan, don’t tap it.”

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