Tuesday, December 06, 2005

This mama cooks

I had every intention of posting MANY cocktail recipes last night to make up for my blogging lapse the past few days. But our damned internet connection was wonky. It appears to have fixed itself now that the skies are clear once again. So hopefully tonight will see me posting a virtual cocktail party's worth of recipes. That is, if Husband doesn't hog the computer again like he did til 11:00 this morning.

I've been thinking a lot lately about food. The food season has just recently switched over to hearty, winter stews and root vegetables and the like. We're also in the midst of the holidays, of course. But I should just come clean as the food obsessed person that I really am. So I've been thinking a lot lately about food and how I can use it to make my children adore me.

I think I'm well on the way with Sister. She's 7 now and has always been a fantastic eater, with only a few strong dislikes that I know to avoid (basically anything spicy or anything in the cooked greens category ). Ever since she's started eating solid foods she's loved them. Once when I fried up a little chicken liver from the chicken I was preparing for dinner, I gave her a little piece and my child asked for more! Makes a Southern mama proud. She'll eat sushi if we go out. Her favorite is salmon roe--you know, the kind that looks like large-ish bright pink soap bubbles? It is a pleasure to feed that child and always has been. And I guess lately I've been realizing that without trying too hard I am becoming her food ideal. The food I cook for her will be the benchmark for all other foods prepared by all other cooks she will encounter as she grows older. Those of you out there who don't give a rat's ass about food will be saying to yourselves, "So what?" But I adore food and am thrilled to have realized this is part of my mama role. I make the cheese grits that the Ex's mother needs the recipe for because Sister won't eat her cheese grits. I make the chicken pot pie. I make the cheese souffle. I fry the catfish. I mash the potatotes. I bake the cookies. And on special occasions, I make the pierogies from the recipe that my Polish grandmother made with me when I was a girl. My girl tells me I'm "the best cooker in the world." To her, I am.

2 comments:

Lauren D. McKinney said...

That is so great. And I learned to love cheese grits when I lived in the south.

Will just asked me to make something recently, an instant mac and cheese mix with Velveeta, oh well. But he does like my bread. A lot.

Speaking of root vegetables, I have used a great parsnip cake recipe from Emeril. It's on his website.

Mommygoth said...

Oh sweetie, to a lot of us, you are "the best cooker", or at least right up there in the all time list. How lovely to pass this on to Sister. Won't it be fun to teach her how to make all of it?