Aardvark Eggs (because "Armadillo Eggs" is taken)

This is another in the category of "I can't believe I wasted so many years not knowing this": squash leaves are edible! You know how a squash plant (zucchini or otherwise) can take over a whole garden? Great big leaves everywhere? Well guess what? That's just fine.

I planted some butternut squash seeds along the back of 2-foot bed. I planted some chard toward the front. I wanted the greens. Well I don't know if the squash killed the chard but the chard never came up. But boy-howdy did the squash ever! I also had some peppers and nasturtiums in there and I was afraid the squash leaves were going to take all the light. Then it occurred to me that "what if those great big leaves were edible". A short internet search later and "yes they are"! They need to be rubbed pretty well to get the fuzz off but that's easy enough. I put a bunch of them in a big pot of soup, along with the stems. Excellent.

Speaking of the stems, wash and rub them real well and cut them into 2-inch pieces and they're just like ziti.

So anyway, I came up with a recipe for a sort of dolmadakia or tamales made with these leaves:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsktvJSFn

boil some sweet potatoes
saute some onions and raisins (or sweetened dried cranberries)
mash the sweet potatoes and onions and raisins
add cinnamon to taste
chop up some Mexican crumbling cheese
wash and rub the squash leaves
cut the leaves in half
steam or boil the leaves just lightly*
put a dollop of potato/raisin on the leaf
sprinkle cheese on top
roll the leaf up
fry the rolled concoction in oil


*I steamed them too much and they fell apart, not at all and they're too chewy

Paranoia-I (there will no doubt be more)

Why do we call the language spoken for centuries by European Jews “Yiddish”? The word, “Yiddish”, means, in that language, “Jewish”. My grandfather, who spoke English poorly despite having lived in the US for around 30 years when I met him, referred to his native language as “Jewish” when speaking English. “Go to the mailbox and get me Jewish newspaper”. “Why can’t you ever learn to speak Jewish?”

We don’t refer to the language spoken in Germany as “Deutch”, although curiously we do refer to the language spoken in the Netherlands as “Dutch”, go figure. We don’t refer to the language spoken in Japan as “Nihongo”. We don’t even refer to the second most widely spoken language in the US as “Español”. We have words in English that serve to name those languages. But we say “Yiddish” when speaking English, to name the language of European Jews. Even Jewish people do this. Even people who speak Jewish do this. Why?

I have decided to believe that it is rooted in antisemitism and shame. To say “Jewish” connotes that, more than the language itself, the speaker is, in fact, a Jew. And further, that this is a bad or shameful thing. Much like people accusing President Obama of being a “secret” Muslim. It’s an insult although there’s nothing insulting about it. I reject this. I am not ashamed that I’m Jewish. I don’t subscribe to the mythology, or if you prefer, religion, and I don’t even speak the language (or the other one). But I’m Jewish enough for jazz and I don’t see anything shameful or embarrassing about that.

Yet the people who talk about the “Yiddish theater” of the ‘30s and ‘40s, or Yiddish music, whether gentile or Jew, must feel that calling it “Jewish” theater or music carries baggage that imputes in some way the otherwise worthwhile attributes of the cultural experience. Bullshit! Bubbamaise!, if you prefer. There is nothing pejorative about calling the language “Jewish” and to avoid that appellation is to be complicit in the tacit understanding that “Jewish” is, indeed, undesirable.