sweet peas and beans

and so it goes. Dinner with the family. Nothing beats it. Sitting down to a meal lovingly prepared by more than just mom to nourish our bodies and our souls. Tonight I tried cooking fava beans. We received a bag of them in our bi monthly organic produce delivery. I have never seen them or cooked them in my entire life. I popped them out of their pods, boiled them for 5 minutes and then put them in an ice bath. Then I removed the shells for each bean and them sauteed them in olive oil and butter and garlic. They were a beautiful bright green and had a lovely texture and flavor after being cooked in that winning combination of butter and garlic. Robbie helped me pop them out of their shells after they'd been cooked once. We agreed that it'd be more fun to sit out on the back porch with our aprons hanging between our knees with our friends doing likewise and snapping the pods, removing the beans. This vegetable takes some serious prep time. This experience was the antidote though to the sometimes domestic dulling experience of "nothing new under the sun". These were new to us! and we relished our introduction. Michael Pollan would be proud.