Just Like Home

Just Like Home

Opening the fridge door, Samantha stood stock and bent forward just a fraction, the tip of her nose growing cold. What to eat. There were no leftovers……yet. Sunday is ‘turkey day’, or in other more traditionally minded circles - Thanksgiving Day. Today, she didn’t really feel very thankful because her fridge was practically empty. A half carton of milk, a chunk of cheese ready to be eaten and a jar of olives. There were only a few olives left floating in the green pickling juice. She supposed she could make a sort of meal. She pulled out a crisper drawer, not expecting to find anything worth eating - a bag of lettuce? Bought yesterday with a few dollars when passing the Farmer’s Market on her way home from work. Her growling stomach was making her very curious. There were mushrooms - also ready to be eaten up. 

Pulling everything out of the fridge, setting them on the cupboard, she looked at the sad little bit of food. It was the downside of being out on her own. She had her own apartment, muttering "after all I am eighteen and I have a job". The rent is always paid but her refrigerator never looked like her mom’s. No pies or snacks or tasty things…….. If she wanted cookies, she had to buy them. Never interested in cooking she hadn’t learned where all that goodness had come from. "I was so looking forward to Thanksgiving Day! Mostly for the food - turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, saskatoon berry pie…….I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it."

Sam picked up her phone. “Mom, can I come over early tomorrow and help you cook dinner?……Yes, I know I don’t know how to cook and I’ve never wanted to…..I know but………Mom, listen…I’ll wash the dishes, I’ll peel potatoes, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. What do they call that - a sous chef?…….Oh, a prep cook…….I can do that and I want to learn how to cook so I can have a real home refrigerator.”

********

Official cooking classes at the community college started exactly one month after Thanksgiving. Sam wasn’t sure how she was going to manage working afternoons and going to night school but was determined to fill up her refrigerator.

“My refrigerator is powerful. In fact, it has 

a direct link to my overall well-being.”

~ Kris Carr,  American author

Brilliant Life

I found a ball of multi-coloured string ~ from bright to shadowed ~ all colours and shades of the spectrum. Curious, I unraveled it to find a roughened stone. Brushing the lint away, there were beautiful facets and faces in a shining diamond. I surmised then that each life was the string, each of us with our own centre. Only our curiosity about life creates the multitudes of colour ~ from bright to shadowed ~ wrapping around the brilliance of each diamond.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

In Memory - Darryl Ward

Looking through old family photos for a picture of Darryl Ward was not completely futile. Ever the boy, teen and man that brought smiles and laughs to many faces, it was curious that he was not in family pictures in my collection. There was one family picture with Darryl sitting on the front row, but he was in shadow, much like his passing has brought to his family and his friends. I tried to clear it up, but an old picture and my limited technology didn’t allow it. Another photo was of a disgruntled teenage Darryl avoiding the camera. The clear photograph I did find is one that brought a smile to my face as I remember Darryl this day. Darryl’s smiling, clear-eyed, upside-down face ~ a soul that spread joy and fun just because....

“If there ever comes a day where we can’t be together 

keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever.”

~ Winnie the Pooh

Time Change

Reaching up in the closet 

for my childhood memories,

I was curious
to know how 

the dust of time had

changed them.

“Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals the details for itself.”

~ Khaled Hosseini,  The Kite Runner

Your Turn, My Turn

Your Turn, My Turn

Under the chair…..the highchair…..I saw it. You know what I saw. Food, a cat and a puppy. And a spoon. I didn’t have time for the extra clean-up. I only had time for feeding this ‘darling’ child of mine. I had just enough time to get him cleaned up, throw his diaper bag in my car and get him to the sitter. 

My husband had already put my things at the door ready to take out to the car. We took turns riding our bikes to work and it was his turn to ride - in the rain. I had gloated a bit loudly as he headed out the door in his rain gear with his brief case. We had rain proof saddle bags for brief cases and purses so they were safe on the rainy days. 

Here I was stuck in the kitchen with rain of my own. Baby Samantha was happy and having quite a time looking over the sides of her highchair. Back and forth. Back and forth. And dropping food - one bite for Gomez the cat, one bite for little Sam, and one bite for Charlie the pup. I was frantic. Cranky. Tired. Not seeing the humour that Samantha did.  I sat down heavily on my own chair, tears coming into my eyes….I’d be late for work and who knew what the traffic would be like! 

Most babies are curious and Sam was no different. All of a sudden she stopped her spoon - the clean one I had replaced - in mid air and looked me square in the eye as if to say ‘Why aren’t you playing mommy? This is fun?’ I could feel my face soften and my tears change from sad to very grateful for this child. This precious child who could take my moment of frustration and flip it on its head. Work, traffic, extra clean-up vanished in that second and all I could see was that it was my turn to have a bite of scrambled eggs. Charlie and Gomez would just have to be patient.

While I was chewing my eggs, I picked up my phone and called work and the sitter. After a quick swallow, I told them both that I’d be a few minutes late while I cleaned up an unforeseen mess.

“Life must be lived as play.”

~ Plato

Kitchen Possibilities

Coming into the kitchen I could see possibilities. They were well hidden but I knew they were there. How many times have any of us spent time opening cupboards, the refrigerator, kitchen drawers with a blank stare? What’s there? “I’m just cooking for me. I guess it doesn’t matter what’s there. But the refrigerator is kind of empty. I’m hungry but there’s nothing interesting there.” Or “It’s just the two of us ~ maybe we could try a new restaurant ~ but we’ve already used up our eating out budget for the month.” 

Now, I love preparing food, cooking food, serving food but I have often been stuck in an old entrenched ‘meat and potatoes with a vegetable’ cuisine that had little imagination and, consequently, often little taste. My mom always used fresh or frozen peas from our garden, but going to other kid’s homes I sometimes was served peas from a can - rather gray and unappetizing. Also as a youngster, I learned to cook but usually had mom or any one of my sisters to guide me and tell me the next step. Consequently I didn’t have to use my imagination much and I’m not certain it was encouraged.

No matter. That was a very long time ago as I am now in my seventh decade of learning. In relation to the kitchen, I am still learning to trust myself. To be brave in the face of spices and flavourings. And ok if it is just me, but when cooking for others I freeze. Afraid that what I prepare and serve will be too much or too little. There are so many real food issues, food fads and food warnings floating about like too much oil on top of the goodness below that it is easier ~ and blander ~ to play it safe. 

I got curious about what I have ~ not what I don’t have in my kitchen ~ while watching TV being a couch potato. Food shows. I love them. Guy’s Grocery Games. Chef’s Table. Chopped - especially with kids competing with one another. How has it made me curious about the contents of my own refrigerator and cupboards? Contestants or experienced chefs have been challenged by game show requirements or by life experience, while growing into experienced chefs. They have all been challenged to work with what they have, purchasing as few ingredients as possible, and to create a delicious meal or dessert. (Dessert is not one of my strong suits.)

I would be much remiss if I didn’t give kudos to my friends and family who have traveled the globe and brought home their taste experiences as well as the rest of their journey. I have eaten many dinners made with their memories of Morocco or Asia. I have learned to be curious about the spicing and preparation of foods from several different areas of the world. I have dabbled in some of those cuisines, but am still much of a novice as they do not spring to mind when wondering what to cook for lunch or dinner.

I have created some not very good meals and some really delicious meals. Fortunately, the not very good meals have been just for me ~ unless my guests were being too polite to say otherwise. But even the not very good meals have been turned into soups with the addition of a little homemade chicken broth and different spicing. Now coming into my kitchen I do see possibilities much more easily. My kitchen is my place to play with my food. Doing dishes is the only down side to this tasty result of chasing my curiosity.

(p.s. - baking bread is my personal favourite - focaccia, whole wheat bread, naan bread, No Knead bread, scones, banana bread……..)

“The more you know, the more you can create. 

There’s no end to imagination in the kitchen.”

~  Julia Child

Curiosity - Theme for October 2018

Coming into the kitchen…..

Under the chair, I saw……

Reaching up in the closet……

I found a ball of……

Opening the fridge door……

Surprisingly, he was……

Intellectually, I knew…..

Taking a leap……

Years ahead in time……..

“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.”

~ James Stephens, Irish poet (1882 - 1950)

Cycles of Stillness

In the stillness of a muggy morning

when cold rain drips from the sky

growth continues beneath the land

knowing springtime will let blossoms return.

Not so in the stillness of prairie mornings when 

snowflakes drift from the sky

growth shivers into life

knowing springtime will warm all the land once more.

In the stillness of natural cycles

whether rain or snow falls from the sky ~

it's a lovely time to be warm inside or out

knowing springtime will come once again.

“Any day stands equal to the rest.”

~ Heraclitus