That's a Spicy Meatball!

For Christmas, Mr. Ten S gave me an Indian cookbook. I've been experimenting with it the past couple of weekends. Last weekend we had a lovely chicken curry with a side of zucchini and yellow squash cooked in mustard seeds and some other fun spices. This weekend we had a lamb curry with a side of green beans that were spiced with dried red peppers, cumin and mustard seed. Both, although somewhat time consuming to cook, turned out really lovely.

Bink has been a picky eater for years. Recently he has been becoming more adventurous. Yesterday I employed him in my kitchen as we made the lamb curry. He was amazed at the array of spices, some that he had never heard of before, that we used in the recipes. Bink peeled and chopped and stirred for me as we cooked our dinner. Although he is not typically a fan of spicy food, he was so curious, that he tried and ate quite a bit of everything that we had prepared. About halfway into the meal, he sort of paused and looked up and said, "It's not so spicy for Sweetness, but I'm like Papa. It's so spicy!"

My father, who is from a Norwegian family that thought pepper was an exotic spice, has never done well with spicy food. He literally will have to wipe down his forehead if even a small amount of pepper is present in a dish. There was no eating of tacos at our house, we owned no hot sauce and we certainly would never have gone to an Indian restaurant. All this to say that I think I have managed to escape the curse of my Scandanavian upbringing and must have dodged the genetic bullet that makes you sweat profusely at the first sign of a spice other than salt. Not so sure Bink escaped though.