The origins of My Mama’s Gift
While I was growing up, I always knew that my mom served us great food, but I never really thought about the fact that she was an excellent cook. Early on I probably just assumed that everybody’s mom could cook like mine, but over the years it became obvious that wasn’t the case. At some friends’ houses, eating dinner was a treat, but at others, not so much. As the years went on, I came to appreciate my mama’s cooking more and more. I think it was in junior high when I started cooking in home ec class that I began to realize how gifted my mother was in the kitchen.
Our house always had lots of cookbooks on the shelves, but Mama didn’t use them much. She would look at the pictures and read some of the recipes, but there were only a few times that I remember seeing her preparing a meal with the aid of a cookbook. I know now that she would look at the recipes and make her own versions of things she saw that interested her.
I always liked looking at the cookbooks, too, and I remember there being one in her collection called She Cooks by Ear. The cover of the book had an older woman behind a table covered with delicious looking food. The book didn’t have any color pictures in it, so I didn’t really look at the contents of it, but I still remember being confused by the title. As an adult, I realize that the title referred to the ability that many people have, my mother included, to create wonderful dishes without having to strictly follow a recipe. Over the past few years, I realize that I have inherited this gift from my beloved mother.
My mother died in 2002 after being sick for many, many years. For the last two years of her life, she was confined to a wheelchair, but she still maneuvered around the kitchen preparing her signature meals for the people she loved. She was the epitome of a kind, loving person who put her family above everything else, and I was truly blessed to have her in my life for my first 30 years.
I hope that visitors to my site will like to hear my stories about the recipes that my mother and I have created in our minds and our kitchens. I don’t claim to be the most talented chef. I don’t have the biggest, most ornate kitchen. I don’t worry a lot about the presentation of my dishes. Like my mama, I just like to cook, I like to create new things, and I like to see people enjoy my creations. Sometimes it’s a hit; sometimes it’s a miss. More often than not, however, the people I love look forward to my meals thanks, in large part, to my mama’s gift…