The problem with blogging is not what to write but rather which thing to write about! I was searching for a recipe last weekend and the result was this “still life”. I said to myself.. now THAT would make a good blog post! My intention was to write about the cookbooks but then I thought perhaps you’d like to hear about my refrigerator adventures or the decoupage of photos on the freezer door. Oh the dilemmas of a blogger…
Thus.. the three chapter essay.
Let’s begin with the cookbooks, shall we? Glancing over my collection I see the layers of my life as chief cook and bottle washer displayed in 3D living color. There’s Laurel’s Kitchen which heralded my natural food cooking era of motherhood and gave me the name “wheat woman” among my fleet of babysitters. Hidden from view is Diet for a Small Planet.. the book that heightened my awareness of how much we feed our cows corn in order to be able to indulge in a juicy steak; corn that could potentially solve the problem of world hunger. Beard on Pasta was my right hand man when creating my favorite pesto recipe from the plethora of basil that grew in our prolific vegetable garden on Tedemory Drive.
That little black book of Lebanese Cookery (under Beard and on top of Laurel’s Bread Book) was my mother’s. Not that she EVER looked at a cookbook but I need to once in a while when I want to pick up the phone and call her for a Kibby consult- knowing that she’s unavailable and currently bossing somebody ELSE around in that great Williams-Sonoma kitchen in the sky. (I can smell the onions for the meatless imjadara frying as we speak- do they have Lent in heaven?)
Horn of the Moon Cookbook, spooned (ah.. double entendre) lovingly with Laurel’s Kitchen and holding up the random food magazine pages ripped out in moments of food lust, was my friend Anita’s favorite cookbook. We were young stay at home moms together and we loved to cook healthy foods for our families and shop at hippie places like Vitamin Village and Mrs. Gouch’s. It’s not my favorite cookbook but I think of Anita when I glance through it and our lives in the trenches of raising children. She relocated with her family to Portland Oregon and since then I purchased the Pacific Northwest Palate which I never use either…perhaps longing for the good old days of our friendship.
Vegetarian Planet leans comfortably against the Joy of Cooking (wedding shower gift.. got that other Joy book too!) to the far right. Patrick bought it for his brother, Peter, after Peter’s five month stint in India and conversion to a vegetarian lifestyle. During the month that Peter stayed with me between life adventures we lifted some interesting dinners from its’ wealth of recipes. He then moved to the City and Patrick moved to Colorado, leaving me with this souvenir of their manly cooking antics.
Food is love. indeed. Amen.
Stay tuned for adventures in refrigerator shopping..
