Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Auntie Carrot

My niece-in-law Aya and I have decided to take advantage of the few family connections we have in Vancouver and get together more regularly. On Tuesday, I was at her place while she made supper. Here her daughter Emi looks on as Aya brings a big bowl of fruits and vegetables to the counter to be fed into the juicer. 

Two-year-old  Emi samples an apple while she waits for the action to get underway.


Aya feeds the last of the bowlful into the juicer, as Emi fishes for strays. 

Mother and daughter share a joke while finishing the operation. 

About a week ago, my niece Aya sent me a video clip of her two-year-old daughter Emi chopping up a carrot with a big knife. I was worried until I realized that the carrot was wooden, pre-cut into re-attachable chunks, and the knife equally harmless. A clue was that Emi's dad, my nephew Etienne, was standing beside her cutting up real carrots with a real knife, and not alarmed at all.

On Tuesday, Emi was busily helping her mother put a big bowl of cut-up fruits, greens, and yes, carrots, through a juicer to make a healthy drink for supper. Emi is learning several languages all at once -- French, Spanish and English -- so she has three different words for any given object. I don't know if her multilingual upbringing is responsible, but partway through the evening, I realized that Emi's efforts to say my name were reverting back to a familiar vegetable. It seems that I am Auntie Carrot.

1 comment:

  1. I love that Emi called you "Auntie Carrot"...I think is should be permanent! What a sweetheart...lucky you. This reminded me of a curried carrot soup recipe I used to make. I couldn't find my original but this sounds pretty close, It's very simple and perhaps you could make it with Emi.

    Auntie Carrot's Curry Soup

    Ingredients
    2 tablespoons vegetable oil
    1 onion, chopped
    1 tablespoon curry powder

    2 pounds carrots, chopped
    4 cups vegetable broth
    2 cups water, or as needed
    Directions
    Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onion until tender and translucent. Stir in the curry powder. Add the chopped carrots, and stir until the carrots are coated. Pour in the vegetable broth, and simmer until the carrots are soft, about 20 minutes.
    Transfer the carrots and broth to a blender, and puree until smooth. Pour back into the pot, and thin with water to your preferred consistency.

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