With Thanks to Aunt Kay

1970 Volkswagen Beetle

When I first married in 1970 my wife, Brenda, and I had pretty limited cooking abilities.  My wife’s mother, who is Italian, failed to learn from her own accomplished mother.  Brenda’s own repertoire consisted of two dishes taught to her by her German father, navy bean soup & pork with sour kraut.  My mother had passed on to me only limited knowledge of my own regional Southern dishes.  I could make a pot of pinto beans and bake a skillet of corn bread.  During that first year we added a couple of pedestrian dishes to our routine, but it was not until we moved to New York in January of 1972 that food started to become an experience. 

Don't Try This at Home

I mean, Don't try to make this at home yourself.  I have spent much of my time in the kitchen trying to perfect one or more of my favorite dishes. For many years I was like many New Yorkers or San Franciscans, believing that good food had to be expensive, labor intensive, & hand made. But I grew out of that dilettantish stage and now am willing to admit that there are some things that one should buy rather than attempt to make at home. Here are four items from big box king, Costco, that I will never try again to make myself.

A Culinary Legacy

In the Kitchen with My Daughter

Now that I’m older I have the smug satisfaction of knowing my children know that there are things I know that they want to know too. We have become a very knowledgeable family. My son, now a parent himself, is starting to understand why my behavior was so peculiar during his childhood. It takes a four year old to understand how little control one has over one’s world. My daughter, who is a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practioner with a degree in adolescent behavior, has no children and still believes that she has grown into a beautiful accomplished professional woman by happenstance.