Friday, April 1, 2011

nigella seeds and mothers days

I have probably said before, that one of the perks of losing your mother, is not having to worry about her on mother's day. You could even stretch that to mean you yourself, as a mother, could expect to have a mother's day dedicated to you instead of anyone else. It's a big stretch though, if you have a mother in law who makes sure to lay her claim to the day early on.

A couple weeks ago she read me the recipe for a risotto she'd copied out of the paper. It was made with Jasmine rice and nigella seeds, which she'd never heard of, and wanted me to look them up. She likes a nice risotto, loves it, and thought this would be nice for Mother's Day, Axl could make it, she'd get the ingredients. The easy to get ones, that is. I should have paid attention to the idea of Asian/Italian fusion and noticed it wasn't really a risotto at all, just a rice dish. With... just rice in it. I did pay attention to the fact that she then asked me would Jasmine rice taste perfumey, and she made the face she makes when confronted with unfamiliar food she anticipates not liking, the kind of face you make if someone holds a shitty nappy under your nose. Well, it would be fragrant, I said, you know, jasminey.

She broached the subject to her son, who realised that it wasn't really a risotto, and that maybe it would need something more with it, salad, for example. Salad?? She retorted, sure why would you want that. It'll be nice with some potatoes. Bread too, probably.

Head desk. He said the seeds might be hard to get, and she aggressively asserted that I would know where to get them. Head desk. They don't have them in the Asian shop, and the health food shop usually has them, but of course, just not right now. Do you notice that, that when you want something, it will always always be strangely out of stock?

I don't want to spend the weekend running round searching for nigella seeds or their subsitutes, I really don't.

I need to be more like my sister in law, who is also motherless, currently pregnant and lives a good hour's drive away. She also has the son who defends his family against his crazy mother (though he does look after her too, and pisses her off with his own brand of inherited crazy) and who looks after her well as and when she decrees. When she's pregnant he paints the house, doesn't sit and watch while she does the sittingroom because he's angry about something (...old wound...).

Whatever it is, my mother in law is a little bit scared of her. I guess she's a little bit scary. Or just assertive. Or far away. I dunno.

It's not that I actually expect anything from Mother's Day, really I don't. I'd like a scratchcard, maybe, a chance to win a million. That might work out well :) I'd just like to not worry about anyone else for the day though. 

7 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

Amen. And get some other type of seeds that might do and tell her they're nigella seeds, whateverthehell nigella seeds are.

Rhi@FlourChild said...

heh heh to Ms Moon's commment, I was going to say the same thing... just get some sesame seeds and burn them. Evil genius.
As a motherless mother with a slightly annoying mother-in-law I so *get* this post.
Good luck with your rice....
x

Jo said...

Hi, Rhi and Ms M. Actually, sesame seeds are an alternative, as are cumin seeds and I don't know what all else. I did look it up. Thank god for google.

Janine Ashbless said...

Genius, Ms Moon!

Compulsive Cook said...

What? Why are you running around doing stuff for the mother of the husband you've split up with? If Axl wants to wrestle with nigella seeds, let him. But you, stay in bed all day, sipping gin and nibbling violet creams!

Jo said...

I did, it's all good!

Mwa said...

SO not your job. Let the son do it. Amen.