Though she started life as my picky-eater child, Bethany has matured into quite the gourmand—and gourmet. She totally loves to cook, and she’s darned good at it! If I were an avid cook myself, I might see this as a mixed blessing. But since I’m not, there’s very little downside, as far as I’m concerned. (My picky-eater husband may disagree, but he’s not blogging here.) I’ve heard stories of kitchen power struggles between mothers and daughters. I’ll even confess that there have been times when I’ve felt a wee bit territorial about my own kitchen—mainly when someone else puts things away and I can’t find them later. Or cooks and leaves me to clean up the mess. But at least in recent years, that hasn’t been much of an issue with Bethany.
Part of the reason may be that I’m too grateful to have someone else cook to complain. However, I have to give Beth some credit, too. She still asks for my advice or help from time to time, even though she probably doesn’t need it. That helps me to feel less obsolete in my own kitchen. She has also educated me about some of the finer points of cooking, things I never bothered to learn since my family never used to appreciate my attempts at kitchen creativity. Now, I find myself buying such esoteric (to me) gadgets as a zester and a garlic press for Bethany’s use in my kitchen.
For this, I’ve been well rewarded with meals far more complex than I’d be willing to tackle, all of which have also been delicious. Her apricot salmon with asparagus, for example, is to die for. The ultimate, however, at least to date, has to be TBLMPE (see the title of this entry). She started with a highly-ranked recipe from allrecipes.com and tweaked it by adding more lemon. (I should mention at this point that I’d have a hard time choosing between lemon and chocolate as my favorite dessert flavor.)
Oh. My. Goodness. This was the perfect pie. I still have a slice in the fridge, beckoning to me. I’m saving it as a reward later, once I’ve done an extended stint on the cross trainer. Because my other “reward” for giving Bethany free rein in the kitchen has been three extra pounds in as many days. But life is all about tradeoffs, right?
–Brenda 🙂
The Ice Cream Lovers 