One of the treats I enjoy eating around the holidays is roasted chestnuts. Like many of you, I associate them with the Christmas season. But they remind me of a time when my father brought a bag home, and I put some in our toaster oven. Since they take about 15 minutes to roast, I went back into my bedroom and was resting on my bed reading my homework.
Meanwhile, my mother walked into the kitchen and sat at the table to do some bookkeeping -- when all of a sudden one of the chestnuts exploded, blowing open the toaster oven door. It nearly frightened my poor mother to death. She must have thought she'd been shot! And in the heat of the moment, she was furious!
She ran into my room with the rest of the hot chestnuts and told me to make sure to "fresse" every last one of them up! In her native tongue, you say "essen" for "eat" when talking about a person and "fressen,” to describe the intake of food by a beast.
I thought the whole thing was so hysterical. All I could do was laugh, right in her face! -- which only made her madder. She ended up giving me a REally dirty look before heading back into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, my mother walked into the kitchen and sat at the table to do some bookkeeping -- when all of a sudden one of the chestnuts exploded, blowing open the toaster oven door. It nearly frightened my poor mother to death. She must have thought she'd been shot! And in the heat of the moment, she was furious!
She ran into my room with the rest of the hot chestnuts and told me to make sure to "fresse" every last one of them up! In her native tongue, you say "essen" for "eat" when talking about a person and "fressen,” to describe the intake of food by a beast.
I thought the whole thing was so hysterical. All I could do was laugh, right in her face! -- which only made her madder. She ended up giving me a REally dirty look before heading back into the kitchen.
People get angry; animals go mad. Was my mother angry? Nah, she was mad! And I was in stitches! Accidents are funny when nobody gets hurt, but an unsuspecting person becomes unhinged.
Today ... here I sit eating chestnuts
, and they are delicious. And when I ask my mam'ma 
, she doesn't remember the family drama. But, I'll never forget it. 
, and they are delicious. And when I ask my mam'ma , she doesn't remember the family drama. But, I'll never forget it.
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Very funny family drama, I had a good laugh reading this! :-) We usuallly roast chestnuts in a frying pan, so this kind of accident never occured to us.
ReplyDeleteMonika, nowadays, I use an oven (wrapping the chestnuts in foil after scoring them). But when I lived at home, my mother made me use a toaster oven for small heating jobs. And look what happened! I'm going to try a frying pan to see if I like them that way too.
ReplyDeleteOne reader wanted to know how to score a chestnut. Answer: Using a sharp knife, cut a big "X" into the chestnut. If done properly, they shouldn't explode even in a toaster oven.
ReplyDelete