Happy Mother's Day

I always enjoyed food, but in an effort to establish my own identity shunned the ways of my talented mother. I watched my mom growing up, but never wanted to be that woman, the woman that came home from work and cooked for her husband. I was to be an independent woman.
My freshman year of college I met a friend with a passion for cooking. He and I shared tater tots in the dorm cafeteria, doused in lemon, salt and Tabasco when there was nothing else edible to eat and he shared his desires to create wonderfully elaborate meals. One day he got the idea to use the oven that was located in the common area of our dorm. We bought aluminum pans, cut rosemary from plants nearby, went to a local butcher to buy lamb, and bribed some older friends to buy us some red wine. We invited friends to join us in our dorm room; we snuck chairs and tables from the common areas, and set to work. We set the lamb to cook and meanwhile prepared a colorful salad, poured wine, sliced bread all the while in a very cramped space. When we returned downstairs to check our meat a dorm activity was underway – a hypnotist. The smells of our lamb roasting in wine and rosemary filled the room. Embarrassed and hysterical with laughter, we crept by eight students under hypnosis to retrieve our dinner. In fits of laughter we took our meal upstairs, joined our friends and enjoyed what was quite possibly the best meal of our lives; because, after all, we lived in the dorm and ate two dollar meals at the food court whenever we didn’t want to eat in the cafeteria.
This moment changed my relationship with food and my mother. She became something to aspire to, rather than shun. Food with friends and family has become central to my life. It is gift that I share with treasured friends and family. I love to experiment with food, share new finds with those I love, and most of all, with every meal I prepare and savor, I honor my mother.