getting to know me

Some of my earliest memories are of baking with my mom. My mom likes to bake and tends to adhere to the rule that every event requires a baked good. "Event," in this context, is a fairly loose term, ranging from family reunion to holiday to church event to nice summer day. Any of these events coming around would necessitate a cookie or bar or scone to serve to our guests or just to enjoy on the porch with a glass of iced tea, which would thus necessitate my mom to be in the kitchen with me and my younger sister underfoot in our aprons.

My mom had a plethora of cookbooks, most of which were from various churches or senior centers. She also has a little metal recipe box filled with recipe cards, most of which are handwritten by her mom, on old library cards that my grandma would bring home from her job at the library. The recipes outlived her memory, and eventually, they outlived her. Here, online, I hope mine will outlive me.

Working in hospice makes me very aware of my fleeting mortality, but it also makes me grateful for the things we share with others. Several folks that I have gotten to know and love in my time on this planet have been memorialized by their food — recipes printed on funeral programs and in obituaries, or recipes made each year in the hopes that someone will live on through the meal shared by the people who loved them while they were on this earth.

Sometimes I find myself falling into the monotony of cooking — cooking just to put food on the table, just to fill bellies and get dinner over with. It is times like that when I force myself to step back and remind myself that even dinner can be an "event" worth celebrating. The recipes we make are mosaics of recipes of those who came before us, flavors and pieces that I have picked up from my mom and her mom and all the meals I've eaten before. Dinner is far more complex than just filling bellies — it is filling souls.

What I aim to do with this blog is to give you the pieces for you to create your own mosaic. Take the recipes and make them your own; develop them to suit your event; combine them with the flavors that have come before you. Whatever you do, make sure to celebrate your event. xx