FOOD
Being Thankful for Those Who Feed Us
For the love of family
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Food brings us together. We sit down to share meals and memories. Some of us cook together or clean up the kitchen and chat after we’ve shared our meals. Food is common to all of us — it is sustenance for body and spirit. While I appreciate good food and love eating, cooking is not my jam.
I can cook hummingbird food…
Ceci, my 9-year-old daughter, watches a cloud of sugar swirl in slowly heating water on the stovetop. I’m making hummingbird food for this year’s one-and-only visitor to our backyard so far. We have nicknamed this young male ruby-throated hummingbird Shy Clyde. He flits away as soon as he is seen, not interested (yet) in any kind of human interaction.
My sugar lover daughter is eager to sample the concoction. She wonders if today she will be allowed to bake. Ceci is blossoming into a genius of cooking alchemy. I have a lot of dietary restrictions to which she patiently caters.
Her latest concoction is an oatmeal cookie with peanuts, chopped crystallized ginger, white chocolate chips, flax, and chia seeds. Delicious and gluten-free! She bakes chocolate chip cookies and brownies for the rest of our family.
Sometimes, my 12-year-old son, Jaden, is a Sous Chef for his sister. Juno, our dog, plays her part, diligently begging for any crumbs from her spot on the floor. Jaden and I share a lack of interest in the culinary arts.
Childhood cooking memories
I remember the microwave cookbook my mom gave me when I was around Ceci’s age back in the late 1980s. I don’t particularly remember what I created though. I don’t think my microwave culinary concoctions tasted all that great!
Childhood memories of cooking that I do vividly recall:
At my dad’s house, I’d microwave lunch meat with string cheese in the middle until it was bubbly and crisped to an almost burn — a favorite snack. Dad and I would make stovetop popcorn together and SpaghettiOs. Before the divorce, when I was around four years old, I’d peek into the oven window, hoping my parents made a cake for Trivial Pursuit game night. After the divorce, for dinners my dad would often cook steak, rare, served with an iceberg lettuce salad. He also introduced me to grape jelly mixed in cottage cheese.
My mom and I made pudding placed in dark brown ramekins and put away in the refrigerator to set. At a fairly young age, she trusted me enough to teach me lighting the pilot in the oven so I could begin my adventures with scratch cakes.
My top two favorites were chocolate sheet cake and coffee cake. I also found an applesauce bread recipe with a cinnamon crumble top that was beyond delicious. Every once in a while I’d attempt my mom’s favorite — a lemon meringue pie. Often the meringue was a bit runny from under-whipping but we ate the sweet treat in harmony and love anyway.
My better half cooks delicious food
Today, David, my husband is the talented family cook. I finally admit I hate cooking 98% of the time. While I cringe at the thought of cooking, I salivate at the thought of eating. Thankfully, David makes amazing carnitas, spring rolls, pad Thai, sweet potato hash, stir-fry, fried mushrooms, baked cauliflower, and more.
Are you the nurturing cook or the grateful eater in your home? What kind of food memories do you have and what kind of food memories are you creating? Home is where the heart is. And, the heart of home is in the kitchen, where love goes into the meals we make and share. Let’s take a moment to appreciate those who feed us.
