From Soup To Nuts And Back Again...

In recent years, New Years Eve and much of the following day often finds me wrapped up in feline fur with a favorite book or movie or in the closet that passes for a kitchen on my flat, attempting to be something other than simply a passable cook.  2016 dawned with unusually hot weather and me stirring a pot of homemade vegetable soup, pondering the origins of my connection with this particular comfort food.

Though not  a "picky eater," I had a short list of loathsome edibles that included liver, creamed foods, mayonnaise, my mother's take on tuna salad and anything remotely bloody. I have always had an aversion to the smell and texture of raw meat, poultry or fish, so made myself scarce until these were on the plate. As a young adult, I embraced vegetarian cooking and eating with gusto, to the very vocal dismay of my hypercritical mother who swore until her dying breath that I had lost my mind.

Growing up and traveling abroad afforded me the opportunity to develop a wider palette than was available in my mother's extended family, so I was often more adventurous than the average kid, eating a variety of vegetables, fruits and dishes from around the globe. I could happily consume escargot with the same aplomb as fish and chips and mushy peas. My love of a good, hot cuppa comes from having learned how to correctly brew, strain and pour the perfect cup of tea, courtesy of a British friend I made while in England in my teens. The Chinese food I learned to love came not from a New York-style take out which now seems ubiquitous but from actual Chinese-owned restaurants and gardens in Panama. The gardens were roadside stands with small plots of land at the back on which the fruit and vegetables to be sold were grown. Consequently, they were seasonal, fresh and of better quality than a lot of imported foods. Seafood, some of it right off the docks, was also a staple in our home.

My parents cooking and eating horizons, expanded as my working mother attempted to replicate some of the varied dishes she enjoyed. A longtime subscriber to Gourmet Magazine, she also collected and sampled recipes from a wide range of cookbooks, often with great results. I, on the other hand, faced an impatient home cook who gradually tamped down any nascent interest on my part in either the art or methods of cookery.
It was only a love of quality and the desire to eat healthily, together with the budget constraints of my student days, and bad cafeteria fare, that saved me. Never a lover of fast food, when all else failed and money was tight, soup could be had, and not from a tin.

Soup was ladled and put in front of me in the immediate aftermath of my mother's premature death, it has warmed me through various episodes of respiratory hell, offered comfort on cold days and seen me quietly through two heart wrenching anniversaries that fall within the first week of the New Year, among other life events.

Until Next Time...

Let Us All Eat Cake...

When was the last time you enjoyed a slice of wedding cake?

This question lingered in the back of my mind as I savored the first bite of vanilla frosting and white cake amid the happy throng of far-flung relatives and longtime friends at the post-wedding party for my friend Steve and his partner Dave last week.

A three-tiered affair,  with separate sections of carrot, chocolate and vanilla, the cake itself was so beautifully done I almost hated to see it cut.

Apart from the sweetness of marital union, wedding cake, from ancient times forward, has symbolized prosperity, happiness and fidelity, among other things.  Though its form has changed through the ages, evolving from a wheat bun to a minced meat or organ concoction known as Bride's Pie, the cake we recognize today only came about with affluence and the availability of ovens and refined flour and sugar. The now ubiquitous wedding cake endures apparently both because of and despite change, as does marriage.

It gave me immense pleasure to share in the traditions of cake, toasts to the groom and groom, music, conversation and food. With any gathering, however, it is the people involved that make it memorable. In this case, the grooms, their hosts and the mix of friends and family members on both sides who are now joined because two wonderful men decided to make their already established commitment as legal as it can be.

In the months since the historic Supreme Court decision allowing marriage equality to stand throughout the nation, several sets of my friends have declared their intent to marry but Steve and Dave are the first to do so. This is both a fitting end to one year and a just and happy beginning for another.

Until Next Time...

(As a post script, I was asked to emphasize how happy they were that friends and family could come and and celebrate with them).