One of the things I took out of my Dad’s apartment was a battered manila folder overstuffed with web site print outs, pages ripped from newspapers, hand-written notecards… all recipes. He loved to cook. I’ve riffled through it a few times since I brought it home, and the memories rise up with every page. When I find a torn-out magazine page I like to guess which recipe made him save it. I run my fingers over the depressions in the paper from his heavy-handed way of taking notes. I may have even sniffed at them a little, to see if any of the splotches retain the scent of his kitchen.
I feel close to my Dad when I look at his recipes. I wondered if I might feel even closer if I’m making and eating the food. So Damon and I are instituting Jim Seger Sundays at our house. Every week I will pick one recipe and we will all have dinner together.
Last night I made avgolomono soup. It’s a recipe I sent to my Dad. The only one. He printed out my email and stuck it in the folder. I don’t know if he ever tried it. I kind of doubt it. He made notes on how to reduce the quantity, as I had wheedled it out of one of my favorite restaurants in my home town. I suspect he meant to make it for me, and just forgot it was in there.
The soup turned out beautifully. It’s salty and super-tart from all the lemon. Elliot practically turned his face inside out with the first bite. He bravely tried a few more bites, but mostly stuck with his clementines and milk after that. Alden didn’t try it. Because it was not plain bread, red noodles, or a hot dog. I made the full restaurant quantity, because I’m my mother’s child, too.
How this planwill turn out for me remains to be seen. An obvious conflict is coming up fast. Dad was a serious, T-Rex-style carnivore. I will run out of twice-baked potato recipes right quick. I don’t have to decide that right this minute, though.
This also fits well with my Life List ambition to try 1,000 recipes. I stopped recording them. Both because life intervened and because I wasn’t enjoying just making a list. So now I’m going to only count the food I actually write about. That moves the goal post back, but this is about the journey rather than the destination. So fine. It also gives me an excuse to write more about cooking.
Recipe #1: avgolomon soup from Myra’s Dionysus in Cincinnati, Ohio
jaysaint 