Daughter of Dark Chocolate Days

Encouragement is something everyone needs! It's important that we get our daily doses, and now there's a really cool blog that offers a dose of "dark chocolate" when you just need that extra pick-me-up.

Check it out: www.dark-chocolate-days.blogspot.com

Today of all days is a dark chocolate day. A rainy January Tuesday is the perfect time for some chocolate and comfort food!

Burnt Offerings

How can someone tell that a meal was “prepared with love”?

Who can say what food tastes of love in its preparation?  Some people struggle with cooking, and they still make the sacrifice for their families. Tasting love is a matter of sacrifice rather than flavor. 

It’s very much like that scene from the end of“Woman of the Year” starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey. Hepburn returns to her husband’s home after neglecting him for politics and does her best to be a regular housewife, attempting miserably to fix a decent breakfast. Her incompetence in the kitchen is obvious, but her love is equally demonstrated by her effort.

A typical scene at my house:

Dad elbows me with a wink, plopping his lunch box onto the kitchen table as the kitchen window is flung open to clear the air, “Burnt offerings again?”

Mom’s frustration is punctuated by a slicing glare. My dad’s teasing is not appreciated, especially after she just spent an hour getting dinner ready only to have her side dish “spoiled.”

When my mom’s dishes spoil, it is still edible the majority of the time. Honestly, my mom rarely burns anything. She is the most incredible cook I have ever had the privilege to enjoy. She uses simple recipes, flavorful ingredients, and she has unparalleled talent in the kitchen. My dad’s teasing is a result of a very few incidents throughout her cooking experiences.

I want to be a woman – a wife – like my mom. Every meal, everything she does is with love. I have never seen someone love as much as my mom. Dad is so confident in her love that he sees even her mistakes as love – including her “burnt offerings.”

All my life I’ve known my mom to give my dad the best of everything. If a dish wasn’t his favorite, it didn’t enter the house. He got the biggest portion, the largest plate, his choice of beverage, and his approval of her food is always the surest sign of her happiness. Of course, my brother and I mattered too, but my mother’s love is demonstrated to my dad through food. Her sacrifice of love includes her rarely eating some of her favorite foods. She splurges occasionally and gets something just for her.

If there’s anything my dad doesn’t enjoy it’s squash and zucchini. One night for dinner, my mom made one of dad’s favorites, and on the side she cooked herself a small squash casserole – one of her favorites. My dad took the serving spoon and dipped out some of the squash onto his plate and my mom gasped, “That’s for me, you won’t like that!”

Dad shrugged, “You made it, I might as well try it.”

Everything my mom prepares is made with affection and care, and you sure can taste it! But it is more about the sacrifice she makes daily to prepare something enjoyable and good for her family. That’s why my mom is “Woman of the Year” every year to me. She truly exemplifies the quality of woman it takes to be loving – sacrificing time, effort, and energy to make others’ lives more pleasant. 

Heart for Sushi

Until just recently, I found the very idea of sushi to be disgusting. Raw fish and rice wrapped with a jumble of ingredients left my texture senses tingling. I couldn't imagine eating something like sushi because you enjoyed it. How could raw fish appeal to the human palate? Then it happened.

While out with a friend for Japanese cuisine, I found myself wrinkling my nose at his plate. A thin slice of fish atop a roll of rice with a brown sauce striping the whole roll made me wonder what could be so incredibly special about this expensive uncooked meal. My friend told me to try it, just once...I very reluctantly plucked a piece from the roll with my chopsticks and was about to bite into it when he corrected me, "No, put the whole thing in your mouth." Obediently I stuffed the large circular bite into my mouth. The moist smoothness of the fish complemented perfectly the rice and cream cheese in the roll itself. I nodded, "It isn't bad. Not my favorite, but it isn't bad."

It wasn't love at first bite; it was not until later that I developed a heart for sushi! I quickly discovered that sushi is a dish to be customized to personal taste. Another attempt at sushi later revealed that I did not like bold flavor bursts. The Out of Control Roll became my tolerated sushi dish. Finally, during an experiment with a new roll, I fell, hard and fast. The Sweet Heart Roll was everything I wanted in sushi. Delicious flavor, powerful and appealing textures, and my personal ensemble of goodness.

Since then, I've discovered many things about myself through my sushi-eating habits. I like warm ingredients mingled with cool. I like a slight crunch to be included in my texture palate. I also enjoy spicy, vibrant flavors!

I found myself discovering my personal taste preferences in a brilliantly delicious way. Because I am a person of habit, I often never try more than one dish at a restaurant, primarily because I go out to eat only when I crave specific foods. Sushi, however, has been a delightful experiment. Always ordering two rolls, I order my latest favorite and a new roll to challenge my tastebuds. Often this results in a wonderful surprise and a new favorite meal!

Salt & Vinegar

Food is, for me, a very passionate subject matter. It is nostalgic, progressive, and "of-the-moment." It takes me back to my roots, drives me forward to experience new things, and it is one of the greatest joys of my everyday life.

Some of my earliest memories of food happen on the cool linoleum floor of a kitchen in Baton Rouge. Piles of cherry tomatoes still smelling of earth and sunlight came from the fenced garden in the back yard. Tiny explosions of savory red pulp went off in my mouth, plopped onto my white shirt, ran down my arms, and splattered onto the floor. I don't remember much else coming from that garden, but the round red fruits were a gorgeous treat for a little girl growing up.

My dad got me hooked on salt and vinegar at an early age. It was great for stomach aches, he said. I seemed to have more and more of them before I learned to make the concoction myself. One part vinegar, two parts water, cover the bottom with salt. Later, I found out that vinegar is great for a number of health benefits, and it gave me one more excuse to drink it.
As I got older, I began to experiment a bit with apple cider vinegar. It was all I had one day, and the salty-sweet balance wasn't working the way I had hoped. Using the same balance of vinegar to water, I experimented with a little sugar and discovered something completely new and satisfying. The taste had the bitterness of vinegar with the sweetness of the apple cider and sugar, and it became another delicious treat to enjoy.