The dishes pile up. They are washed. Put away. The counters wiped down. I begin again.
Cooking fills me up, I want to take care of people and this is a way to do it. Dinners served, leftovers packed into lunches.
But it makes me very melancholy too, when I think of all the women taking care of their people, before me and after I'm gone.
I try to remember, when I feel this way, what Grandma Eva wrote on the back of her card for Herring Canape. A single instruction stands out, a bold command:
"Taste."
Stop a moment, still the thoughts, the worries, the sense of pressing time, and just take a mouthful, right in the immediacy of Now. Taste.
5 comments:
i'm glad to see your words again, sugar! your Grandma Eva was a smart woman. xoxoxox
And look at that writing! Much more poignant than laminated easy wipe recipe cards.
Are you really joining the 365 club? Blimey... brilliant!
Sx
That's a lovely interpretation of the word taste - to halt all your buzzing thoughts and just savour what you've prepared.
Of course she might have meant it more prosaically - before you refrigerate it, taste it to make sure you've got it right.
And like Scarlet, I love the beautiful, meticulous writing.
Hi Leah,
I have to agree that your Grandma Eva was a smart woman when it came to cooking since on all the cooking shows I have watched they say the most important thing a cook can do is to taste their food. But it is funny because when I was growing up they used to tell us not to keep tasting the food because it would cause us to gain weight.
And it does always seem as if you just get done and you have to start it all over again. Oh and you can come cook for me any day.
God bless.
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