Cooking with Mom

The new blog idea started over the holidays, just passed. I returned in early November from a long overseas trip with Your Liminal Space Retreats – 7 weeks and 7 countries. It was amazing, but I was really, really tired after I got home. However, it seemed that I was not too tired to cook, because I did a lot of it from Thanksgiving right on through to New Year’s Day. And I loved it. I loved baking batches of my family’s favorite cookies, pondering over recipes, planning my famous (well, in my family, at least) 5 course meals. Everyone had requests and I complied. It was wonderful.

The creativity of it all, the rhythms of chopping, mixing, roasting or  frying, plating and serving, rejuvenated me. It made me think of how my grandmother (her story is “The Work of Her Hands”) found solace in her kitchen, how she loved everyone gathering over her food and humbly enjoyed their praises for her efforts. As I say in the book, she was a master at making something delicious out of practically nothing. I pride myself in doing the same. For me, that is cooking at its best.

I love to write and I love to cook, so my son, Mitchell, said, “Mom, why don’t you write about cooking? And I said, “Good idea!” So, here is my hope: that every week I will share a bit of what happens in my kitchen, for better or worse, the deeply delicious and maybe even some of the “not so good.” I’m not much of recipe follower – I use them mostly for inspiration rather than instruction, but I’ll offer what I can in the way of cups and teaspoons, etc.  And, when I travel (which I do frequently) I will happily report on the fabulous cuisine I taste as I make my way around the world … because, really, it’s all about the food, isn’t it?

Next time I’ll offer my first recipe,  Cornflake Chicken (I never use a recipe for this, so I have to create one for you),  in honor of Mitchell. It is one of his favorite “Mom” dishes and the inspiration behind his encouragement to start this blog.

Until then, eat well, be happy.