A Little Celebration for My 200th Post!

There's a lot going on this weekend.  The Oscars Awards Ceremony is tonight, and a lot of people are excited about that.  There are smaller celebrations taking place as well.  Yesterday, Katie, Sydney, and I took a lovely drive to Winstead, Connecticut where we attended a baby shower for Sydney's soon-to-be-born grandson.  This will be Sydney's third grandchild and she is thrilled.  An expert quilter, she made a beautiful quilt for baby Nolan.  She is a textile artist and her works are cherished.  I returned home last night in time to have dinner at Great Bay in Ballston Spa with my sisters and my mother's oldest and best friend, which is especially meaningful since it's almost 8 years since we lost our own mother.  While I was at Great Bay, my ex-husband and his wife arrived to have dinner at Katie's house (where I have a mother-in-law apartment) with a couple of Marino's pizzas (a family favorite) and dessert.  This morning, I took a cake out of the oven for my brother Steven's birthday today.  All of these events revolve around the food that is shared.  Food is not the reason for the get-together, though it enhances the experience.

Today marks the 200th post of this blog, started May 26, 2009.  While it is a milestone, it is more an indication that this endeavor is worth the effort, though I must admit that writing this blog is more pleasure than work.  Fears that I would run out of things to write about were groundless.  There's always something to say.  The other day, I passed two men in conversation, talking about a recipe.  It was yet another example that discussion of food, whatever the forum, is basic and universal.  Everyone eats.  If we don't eat, we die. Everyone thinks about the next meal.  For some, it's a matter of survival; for other fortunate people, it's about options.   Some people, like me, expand those thoughts toward the creative to produce and provide food that does more than nurture.  The sharing of food creates an atmosphere, provides a sense of home and community, marks a special occasion, and makes a memory. 

Food is so much more than what we ingest.  For me, food is what I can give, what can be shared, that makes it such a primary focus in my life.  More than anything, it says "I care about you." 

Photo image: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4DKUS_enUS282US282&gbv=2&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=celebrate&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&start=0

A Big Birthday and a New Adventure

This is a busy baking week. The most important baking is for my daughter Meghan's birthday. She's coming for dinner tonight, and I've baked her 30th birthday cake (chocolate through and through). Of all the cakes I bake, those for my kids' birthdays are the most important. Meghan's actual birthday is December 20, but we're celebrating tonight. For years it seemed her birthday got lost in the holiday shuffle. For that reason, I usually baked something special for her. When she was five, I baked a cake with a gingerbread girl design and decorated the whole thing in M&Ms. For one of her recent birthdays, it was a cake decorated to look like a pine bough with snow, and it became one of my favorite winter designs (it's the photo posted with this blog entry).

Meghan's birthday this year is bittersweet. She and her boyfriend Mark are leaving that very day for Long Beach, California. They're packing up their van with minimal belongings, two dogs, and a cat and heading west early Sunday morning to try California living for a while. I am optimistic for Meghan for this opportunity. Selfishly, I will miss her, and will miss knowing she is nearby. I worry about them driving across country during the winter, though they have a good plan and are sensible. Still, I'm a mom. All in all, it's a good thing and a learning experience. Her father, on the other hand, is not thrilled at her being so far away, though he is trying to get comfortable with the idea.

What an advantage it is to be young, able to pick up your life and start over simply because you can. There's no other time in her life that she'll be able to do this, I expect. Once she settles in with a job, a family, perhaps children, such options for new beginnings are not so readily undertaken. So I say, "Enjoy the adventure. Do as much as you can. Take it all in, for everything you do is an education. And miss your mother. Definitely, miss your mother. Your father will be fine, but call him now and then. Just to let him know."

Bon voyage, my Meghan.

Photo: my very own

Food - is it all about me? Not anymore.

I often think of food as a communication tool. If you ask women, particularly, to think of their relationship with food, the response is usually in terms of the personal: how much is eaten or ingested, how it is personally satisfying, or how many calories and the repercussions of indulgence. After decades of food=me=mood, it's a relief to realize that as I’ve gotten older, my own ego-centric view of food has shifted outward to consider it as more a social medium than something so specifically personal. Food is something we do as much as it is something we consume. Food sets a mood, creates a tone, and invites community.

Think about walking into someone’s home, perhaps for a party, and the aroma of something cooking in the kitchen greets you before you have a chance to take off your coat. Food is atmosphere. It is setting. It’s as much a part of the environment as the host’s living room furniture and potted plants. Food serves a purpose. It welcomes us home. It celebrates a marriage or birth, and it soothes a grieving soul.

Do you ever wonder why it is that we respond to life's most significant events with food? We bring a lasagna to a family with a new baby, or a cake to a reception after a funeral. There’s always too much, but it is exactly enough because the food brings more than the servings it provides. Delivered with a casserole or a bundt cake is the message “I care. I want to nourish you at this important time. You are important to me.”

I am so glad that I see food differently at this stage in my life, and I feel fortunate to share occasional recipes for my food, and my thoughts about it, with you.

Photo image: http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/4845294/bundtcake1-main_Full.jpg