food never ceases to amaze me.

yesterday i made stuff.
i woke up baking and cooking, and didn't stop.
homemade chocolate pudding.
ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies.
plum and teriyaki marinade for both tofu and chicken kabobs.
luckily, everything turned out pretty tasty. *pats self on back*. (literally, i just did that, patted myself on the back.)

as i was stirring the pudding in process - watching the sugar, the flour, the cocoa powder and the milk meld together and wait to boil, i thought about its' origins. who originally thought of this stuff? who thought of flour? who thought to put them all together in this delicious form?

i know recipes are formed all of the time. some are happy accidents, some intentional creations.

i thought about my grandmother fox. i thought about the happy memories i have of her related to food. my grandmother smelled of radishes and green onions. she used so much cream in her coffee it was more white than brown. she could grow a tomato better than anybody i've known since, and i've known some tomato growers in my time.

she grew up during the depression, and as a result froze everything food related later in life so that it didn't go to waste. and when i say everything, i mean everything. potato chips. saltine crackers. she had a deep freeze in the bedroom of her one-bedroom apartment when she moved from the house she lived in to a retirement village.

as a young girl, we lived in texas, and drove yearly to ohio to visit her. i used to joke with my parents that upon arrival grandma fox would come out to the cracked cement driveway of her pre-war home and declare, "well, i don't have a thing thawed!" i didn't make the connection until well into my adulthood what exactly this meant...literally, she didn't have a thing thawed.

grandma fox was famous for her vegetable soup, her meticulously cubed potatoes in her homemade potato salad, and her peanut butter cookies. oh how i loved those peanut butter cookies. grandma fox is the one who taught me how eggs work.

i was around 5 years old. i remember being outside at her house. maybe on a swing? maybe at the picnic table? somewhere in her back yard. and out she came, with a peanut butter cookie wrapped in her apron. "oh yum," i thought. "here you go christi, i just made these peanut butter cookies, only i forgot to put in the eggs, so they're all crumbly. eggs work like glue in baking you see, and without them, everything falls apart." it was a great example, one i never forgot.

i carried it with me into 7th grade home ec. when we were learning what everything in baking does and we came to the eggs, i knew immediately. my hand flew in the air, "glue! they are the glue!" yep. instant A. (thank you grandma fox, there weren't that many A's in my academic career, but 7th grade home ec was one of them.)

i thought of this story yesterday when stirring the pudding, waiting for it to boil, and i recounted it to my boyfriend brian.

brian has a nine year old daughter maura. maura likes to do things in the kitchen. she likes to crack open eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. she likes to stand on the step stool and look at stuff on the stove. she loves to wash and cut mushrooms, and sautee them on the stove top. she is pretty great with a knife, i must say. maura is really great at coming up with menu ideas, especially for parties.

maura's favorite food related activity is watching the food network. she could do it for days straight if she'd be allowed. rather, she dvr's show after show after show (and i clear them off of the dvr when she's not looking so that it doesn't fill up the entire thing). smile.

yesterday friends came over for an outdoor celebration. we ate. we laughed. we played bean bags. we discussed dishes from our childhood. watergate salad. lime jello with cabbage and carrots on a bed of iceberg lettuce. some whipped cream creation with pineapple and marshmallows. lots of items with cream of mushroom soup. fruit salads covered in orange juice. childhood pizza party friday nights with homemade pizzas - the 'garbage' variety, chef boyardee just add water pizza crusts.

it's a wonder any of us eat anything at all now really.

and we wondered together - what maura and her friends will grow up and talk about eating from their childhood - plum and teryaki kabobs. sushi. egg white omelettes with aged cheddar cheese. lasagna with arrabiata sauce. real maple syrup. blueberries in season.

like i said, food never ceases to amaze me.