American Girl Turnips

Three turnips were in the box from the organic garden this week.

When I was young, the doll that all the girls played with was Barbie.  When my Darling Daughter was young, the doll that all of the girls played with was American Girl.  If you are not familiar with them they are dolls representing different eras in American history.  They come with books describing what a girl’s life would have been like in that time frame.  DD had the Felicity doll from the American Revolution, but she collected the books and movies from the other dolls as well.

Molly was the doll from the World War II era.  Her father was a doctor who volunteered to go to war.  Her mother went to work in a factory, and the family learned to live with blackouts and rationing.  Molly saw two people close to her lose loved ones in combat.

What does any of that have to do with turnips?  I’m getting there!

The lady next door stayed with Molly and her brother and sister from the time they got out of school until their mother got home from her factory shift.  She fixed their dinner if the mother had to work late, and one night….she served them boiled turnips.  The older brother and sister choked them down, but Molly refused.  She was still sitting at the table scowling when her mother came in from work.  The neighbor reported her refusal to obey.

When Molly and her mother were alone in the kitchen, the mother picked up the plate of now cold and soggy turnips.  She turned on the stove and put the turnips in a skillet with some butter and sugar, assuring Molly that she could spare a little from their ration.  When they were warm, she put them back in front of Molly.  Suspiciously Molly tasted them, and to her surprise, she liked them.

When I started on the BTD I began to buy frozen turnip greens.  They had little chunks of diced turnips mixed in with the greens.  I liked the greens, but I didn’t particularly like the turnips.  Both greens and turnips are beneficial for Type Os, so I choked the turnips down like Molly’s dutiful brother and sister.

But what was I going to do with three turnips?  My Honorable Husband declared he was not going to eat them!  I think he ate too many boiled turnips when he was a boy.  So I decided to prepare the turnips like in the American Girl book.

I was cooking beets, so I wrapped the two small turnips in foil and baked them.  When they were cool, I pealed them, and cooked them with ghee, agave, and cinnamon.  Twice baked sweet potatoes and butternut squash are delicious.  Twice cooked turnips did not have a good texture.  The flavor was good, and I ate them, but unless I could do better I was not going to volunteer for more turnips.

I had one large turnip left.  I pealed it and grated it in the food processor.  I stir fried it in ghee, agave, and cinnamon.  It was sweet and spicy and crunchy.  I really liked it…enough to buy turnips on my own at the grocery store.

Molly’s mother was a genius!

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