Food

When the kiddo was about ten years old and we were eating the best hamburgers we'd ever had at a little place outside an Air Force base back east, he suggested that I write a travel restaurant guide, and he would help me do the research by traveling cross country and eating at all the restaurants we came to.

I have to admit, the idea of traveling -- and eating -- for a job held a lot of appeal. (I'd hate to think how much weight I would have gained along the way, driving all day and stopping only to eat and sleep!) I never say never, but I don't think it likely I'll ever write such a guide.

However, I have spent a good deal of time putting together a cookbook. It's not for publication -- these are my recipes. Only five copies exist -- Liz, Leah and DL each got one for Christmas last year, and I've got one partially organized for the kiddo. (He likes to cook; D-I-L likes to clean. Works out great.) Still, it's one of my favorite projects.

For years, we never ate at home -- once, maybe twice every couple weeks. Then I discovered the joy of cooking. Nope, not the cookbook, but the real pleasure. I love reading recipes, love trying new dishes. I make the best baby back ribs -- Leah's husband says so -- and my jambalaya and bread pudding are legendary. And don't get me started on my baklava . . . oh, my God, it's incredible. With a pound of butter and cups of sugar and honey and walnuts, it damn well should be. (Nope, no modesty here. I know what tastes good.)

I try at least one or two new recipes a week; if we like them, they eventually get into the cookbook; if we don't, they hit the trash. The cookbook itself lives in a binder -- actually three binders now. I type up the recipes and print them in a large font because with age goes my vision. (My hearing's not what it used to be, either. And the aches in my knees . . . but it still beats being dead.) Every recipe in the collection is one we've tried and liked. Granted, not everyone does. After all, I tried and liked fried shrimp heads. In fact, I'll try pretty much anything set in front of me. My only rule is it has to be dead. I don't swallow nothin' that's still breathing. Other than that, I'm open to it.

And if I like it, it gets into my book. And when all is said and done, that book just might be the most memorable of all of them I've written. Rachel6:49 PM