Peeling Potatoes

 

This evening as I peeled some potatoes for our dinner, I couldn’t help but think of my Grandma.  It is because of her that I love food. 

I was blessed to be able to grow up ten minutes away from my Grandparents.  Their house were pretty much our second home. I went to their house almost every single day after school from 7th grade until the end of high school.  And without fail, Grandma had something delicious waiting to share with us whenever we would drop in. 

I would walk in the front door and call out for them. Usually Grandma would be found in the kitchen, while Grandpa was either watching a Western, or taking a nap, or sitting at his chair at the table smoking and drinking coffee. Words cannot describe how much I miss them and those precious times. 

My Grandpa was very insistent during family dinners that we all passed the food around the table in the same direction.  He hated it when we would all start passing the food across the table and up and down the sides. He would usually decide which way we would pass it and then we would all follow his hilarious instructions. He would pretend to dab the corners of his mouth very daintily with a napkin while holding his pinky finger up in the air. He would do anything to make us giggle. 

My Grandma never sat at the opposite end of the table, but rather, to the right of my Grandpa, on the corner of the table. She lived for not only constantly serving Grandpa delicious food, but all of her attention.

Sometimes, I wonder if she ever got tired of working in the kitchen ALL DAY long to make 3 meals a day from scratch, but she will always say it was her greatest happiness. To see her loved ones not just eat, but devour her creations with so much JOY and adoration because it truly was the best food you ever had. She cooked with love… And literally named her cookbook that she gave everyone as a Christmas present one year “Cooking With Love”.

But it wasn’t just any cookbook. They were all of the recipes that we all loved for her to make. She wanted to pass on her Pie Crust and Mashed Potato secrets to the next generation. There wasn’t a dry eye in the living room that day as we all opened our cookbooks at the same time and read over her personalized message to each of us.

She talked about her life growing up, and how she had to make the food for her family. And about how much she loved to prepare it. So whenever I’m in a slump when it comes to cooking, it usually is because I am not cooking with love. All it takes is a little attitude adjustment and a moment while I peel potatoes over the kitchen sink and listen to the children playing outside,  to remember why I am PRIVILEDGED to cook for my family.   Because that’s what Grandma Tena did.  Until she could not physically stand up in her kitchen, she dragged her tired, tiny body in there and made whatever she could muster.  Though she never understood why anyone would want to be vegetarian, everything I make now I try to at least make it with love.

And that makes everything taste better.