And if there are more than two pots involved, my vision blurs, my hands shake, I get heart palpitations, and I have to go to a dark room and repeat calming mantra meditations.
I may be exaggerating.
But not really.
This would not be a problem, if it weren't for my dear friend Vishakha. You see, when I lived in Germany, she once made me a bowl of chicken curry, a recipe from her native India.
Because of this bowl of curry, as newlyweds, Tyler and I spent any extra dollars and basically every date picking up curry at our favorite hole-in-the-wall curry restaurant.
And because of this bowl of curry I have been wanting to make my own for a long time.
BUT HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MANY INGREDIENTS ARE IN A BOWL OF CURRY?
Even in the 'easy' curry recipes.
Until today.
Because completely by accident I fell right upon this: a curry sauce recipe that has been campified. That's a technical term for 'so-easy-you-can-make-it-when-you-are-camping.'
And there are four ingredients.
Yes, it's true.
I know, I know.
You can stop crying those tears of happiness now.
Let's just get you the recipe. Here it is:
EASY (FOR REALS THIS TIME) CURRY SAUCE
14 oz chicken broth
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp curry powder (or more, to taste)
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
And because of this bowl of curry I have been wanting to make my own for a long time.
BUT HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MANY INGREDIENTS ARE IN A BOWL OF CURRY?
Even in the 'easy' curry recipes.
Until today.
Because completely by accident I fell right upon this: a curry sauce recipe that has been campified. That's a technical term for 'so-easy-you-can-make-it-when-you-are-camping.'
And there are four ingredients.
Yes, it's true.
I know, I know.
You can stop crying those tears of happiness now.
Let's just get you the recipe. Here it is:
 |
| I took these pictures at night. When it's dark. So please excuse them if they look...dark. |
EASY (FOR REALS THIS TIME) CURRY SAUCE
14 oz chicken broth
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp curry powder (or more, to taste)
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
Once broth comes to a simmer, add the butter and let it melt. Whisk in the curry and let that simmer 5-10 minutes. Taste, and add more curry if you want, then add the coconut milk.
I know you didn't know it was so easy. I probably just changed your life.
I will say, you might need to use two more pots:
1) for your rice and
2) for whatever you want to stir-fry and put the sauce on (I did chicken, onion, baby carrots and pineapple).
(P.S. Just in case you were worried about me, it was ok with the extra pans cause the sauce was so easy my heart only started beating really fast for just a second.)
And it was good. Tyler liked it. I liked it.
And my 2- and 3-year-olds even ate it. Which makes me happy.
Not just because my pediatrician says it's good to feed your children, but because of something my parents did a long time ago.
A long time ago, my parents made friends with the world.
One of my earliest memories is sitting cross-legged around a low table in a living room, being served unrecognizable course after course by one of my father's best friends, Fang. If ever a man exemplified hospitality and selflessness, it was he. At another time he would take a train to visit us, instead of an airplane, simply so he could bring food with him to treat us.
I remember Thanksgiving dinners with so many beautiful colors around our table--friends from Morocco, Germany, Russia, Japan, Korea, France, Vietnam, the Ukraine. My parents had hung small flags for each of our guests' countries from the chandelier.
I remember visiting my dad as a child at the Owl's Head German immersion summer camp where he was an instructor and getting yelled at by some college students because I had screamed 'shut-up!' at my brother in English.
I remember sneaking into the glass dining room cabinets that held my parent's treasures--trinkets and souvenirs from around the world--Russian matryoshka nesting dolls; the carving of Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god; the fragile dolls my grandfather had brought my mother in his travels over Europe.
And then they moved us to Austria and put us in Austrian schools and suddenly we felt at home in a country we were not born in.
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| That's me in the front, with the flowers. People actually wear the traditional Austrian dirndl and lederhosen as regular daily attire. At least they did in the 80s when we were there. |
Like my parents, I want to 'give my children the world'...even if we never leave the state. I want them to know that this planet is a family--that although different people have different ways that can seem strange and be unrecognizable, we are brothers and sisters and family. I want them to know there is goodness across the world.
I have felt that, and I know it. You can find it dancing and eating at a Hare Krishna temple in Boston or at a friend's family reunion deep in the boondocks of Missouri. Our diversity is precious, and the people who carry that diversity, even more so.
I know there are things going on in our country and in the world that make it easy to forget the goodness. It's easy to be afraid. It's easy to get caught up in political feeling about what is right and wrong. I have gotten caught up in it. And then I have to remember that before 'right' and 'wrong' comes something more powerful and more important: kindness.
I am a Christian and that's what Jesus taught. I want to be like Him.
I want to help my world family.
And I believe that no matter what government policies come and go, there is always something that can be done, sometimes in my very own neighborhood. This is what I mean:
I was only a kid when we lived in Austria and so I didn't have a real grasp of what the word 'refugee' meant, but I heard the word often in my home. Many refugees came through Austria in the 80's with the hope of making it to an English-speaking country.
I remember some of the faces that my parents invited to dinner and especially the faces of a deaf and mute couple who had escaped from Hungary. They knew only Hungarian sign-language and so my mother learned American sign-language so that she could help teach them. One of their daughters taught the children in our congregation how to sign a Mother's Day song in Hungarian sign-language without her parents knowing. I don't think those parents will ever forget the Mother's Day when all of the children stood in front of the congregation and sang their song, while signing it in Hungarian.
I don't know what happened with each of those families, but I feel this: It's not a 'given' that I was born in the United States, that I have a warm home, running water, that I can feed my children, and that my family is close. Their story could have just as easily been mine.
But how do you help when you are a family with small children?
For us it's beginning with teaching our children to look outside of themselves, and expanding their vision.
For us it began with food--a sincere conversation about how blessed we are to have it and that not all children do.
An explanation of why that happens sometimes.
A moment on the computer teaching what we can do about it.
Letting my three-year-old press the keys on the computer to make a small donation through our church's humanitarian aid fund.
I know that reaching outside of ourselves will do at least one thing: bring good things into our life.
Maybe even make the world a better place, individual by individual--not just them, but us.
I have felt those good things come into my life, mainly because of how my parents reached out.
Because my parents were not afraid to reach out, when we had a baby that didn't live long, there were prayers spoken for my family across the world--not just in English, but in Arabic, in German, in Russian, in the dialects of the Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.
And we felt them.
So if you are thinking, how did a post about curry sauce turn into this, just know I am an expert of tangents, but more importantly think on what a wise man once said,
"A man filled with the love of God is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race."
~Joseph Smith, Jr.
And you might as well hear wise words from a woman, too, who said this:
"[My mother] was very clear that nothing would mean anything if I didn't live a life of use to others. And I didn't know what that meant for a long time...It was only when I began to travel and look and live beyond my home that I understood my responsibility to others. I learned...how fortunate I was to have food to eat, a roof over my head, a safe place to live, and the joy of having my family safe and healthy...
I have never understood why some people are lucky enough to be born with the chance that I had to have this path in life, and why across the world there is a woman just like me with the same abilities and the same desires, same work ethic and love for her family, who would most likely make better films and better speeches, only she sits in a refugee camp and she has no voice. She worries about what her children will eat, how to keep them safe, and if they'll ever be allowed to return home...
I don't know why this is my life and that's hers...but I will do as my mother asked and I will do the best I can with this life to be of use."
"[My mother] was very clear that nothing would mean anything if I didn't live a life of use to others. And I didn't know what that meant for a long time...It was only when I began to travel and look and live beyond my home that I understood my responsibility to others. I learned...how fortunate I was to have food to eat, a roof over my head, a safe place to live, and the joy of having my family safe and healthy...
I have never understood why some people are lucky enough to be born with the chance that I had to have this path in life, and why across the world there is a woman just like me with the same abilities and the same desires, same work ethic and love for her family, who would most likely make better films and better speeches, only she sits in a refugee camp and she has no voice. She worries about what her children will eat, how to keep them safe, and if they'll ever be allowed to return home...
I don't know why this is my life and that's hers...but I will do as my mother asked and I will do the best I can with this life to be of use."
~Angelina Jolie
Love, C
*If you or your family are looking for ways to help, here are two phenomenal resources:
1) IWasAStranger.lds.org--focuses specifically on refugees...has videos, stories, and ideas for how you can help no matter your circumstance or where you are
2) JustServe.org--put in your zip code and any organization that works with JustServe will have opportunities posted. I just checked the opportunities in my area and at this very second there are 27 very attractive and doable opportunities I could volunteer for.