soup from a stone, fancy that!

This week's curriculum story has been the Enki Education version of "Stone Soup". I've heard this tale told many ways -- a man inspiring a poor village to pull together and provide ingredients for his soup, the military tricking a community into feeding them, a beggar convincing reluctant folks to help him out. The Enki version is more along the lines of that last format. A young man convinces an old woman to provide the ingredients for a soup by intriguing her with a tale of being able to make soup from a stone.

I delighted the kids today by producing the ingredients (and the stone!) as I read the story. When we finished up, and as the kids were exploring the various items in front of them, I said "So, what do you think? Do you want to make Stone Soup?" Their eyes lit up and Zoo Boy asked, wondrously, "Do you think you know how?" I told him we could just read the story and it would tell us how, so he grabbed my story book and brought it to the kitchen as J and I schlepped the ingredients in.

After getting the pot of water (and I cheated by adding some chicken broth) bubbling, and the stone deposited within (after washing it well, of course!), Zoo Boy said "Now, read the part where they get the onion!" and grabbed the onion for me to chop up and add to the pot. We repeated this for the carrots, the beef bones (although I used lamb, as it was all I had available), the salt and the pepper. He then wanted to add the barley, but I convinced him that they let that pot bubble a LONG time in the story before they added that. So he had to patiently wait an hour until it was time.

J gives the soup pot a stir. We took turns stirring, although Zoo Boy eventually positioned himself right next to the stove so that he could do the most stirring. Playing "chef" is one of his favorite make-believe games, and he was absolutely thrilled to be really cooking something. (What can I say, I just don't cook much! Something that I want to change, since both kids really do enjoy it.)

Finally it was time to add the barley. Zoo Boy thought it was almost as much fun to pour it into the pot as it was to play with it. Another hour's worth of simmering went by. I had to add more water about a half hour into it because that barley sopped up all of the moisture like a sponge. I had followed a recipe I got off the internet for beef barley soup to keep me somewhat on-track with proportions, etc, but I think my interpretation of "simmer" was more like a low boil. So I added more water, cut back on the stove temp, and things seemed run a little better from there.

And here's our stone soup! It's absolutely delicious, I'm sort of impressed with myself -- I've never actually cooked soup that didn't come from a can or a pouch before. And no, for you eternal optimists out there, the boys did NOT try it. (Sigh.) But they did handle all the ingredients and tolerated ME eating it, and ate their snacks right alongside the bowls of soup I'd laid out for them.

As we were eating, I said "I wonder if that guy really needed the stone to make the soup?" J laughed and said "No, it's the other ingredients that made it taste good".

Hm, what do you know, he IS understanding this stuff!