Cooking Tidbit - Love

Cooking Tidbit - Love

I offered up the deviled eggs recipe partly to be in sync with Easter and what to do with all those boiled eggs! Putting a tray of them out for breakfast when we have company was a big hit. They are also a nice addition to hors d'oeuvres to serve at a party, especially if you substitute some of the other suggested fillings for the egg yolks.

Thinking about deviled eggs reminds me of a fond family story. My widowed mother-in-law, Peg, was getting on in years and she lived alone. Behind her home was a drive-thru store where you could get milk or bread on your way home. She would walk back to the store and, apparently, was purchasing many cartons of eggs. She would bring them home and lovingly prepare deviled eggs for us. 

She didn't learn to drive until she was fifty eight, after my father-in-law passed away and being a bit wild behind the wheel, I would make the children come in from the front yard when she was coming over. She sort "made tracks" as she drove up into our yard and I didn't want any children out there!

Well, she started visiting every few days and would bring us a large platter of deviled eggs. Soon I had about forty five deviled eggs in the fridge! that was when we began to realize she needed a little closer watching over.

What was so sweet about it was that I felt that she was trying to take care of us and this was her way of showing us how much she loved us, even though she apparently didn't realize just how many eggs she had brought us!

I learned so much from my mom and Peg. I hear their voices, telling me what to do next when I don't quite know what to do as I am preparing something. Setting the table with pieces I inherited from my mom brings her to every Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner. I used to be asked to set out certain serving pieces, very carefully so as not to break them, when I was quite young. I swelled with pride at the honor of being asked to do this. When I set the table with her things, I am transported, I am once again that small girl. It is magic I didn't even know she was making at the time.

So at every opportunity, put some love into your meal. Give the little ones in your life a special task. When you are preparing food, no matter how tired or how rushed you are, take a moment to be still. In the silence will come the voices of those who love you, who are sitting on your shoulder as you are preparing a snack or a meal. It is magic.