My Plate or Yours?

Family Traditions

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on November 30, 2005

I'm writing this the morning after Thanksgiving, and I am still full. We had "the usual" - family standbys we wouldn't dare replace, but with minor variations picked up over the years.

The turkey is now brined and Mom's bread stuffing features fresh herbs instead of dried, with mushrooms; the garlic mashed potatoes have caramelized onions added, the Brussels sprouts are roasted as per an old friend, and the green beans are roasted too, courtesy of a favorite cooking magazine.

 

Winter Squash

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on November 16, 2005

Well, I guess I am doing my job as an educator - of palates, if not of minds.

"I have never put squash in my mouth before," one of my students told me Sunday at a class dinner for which I'd made winter squash and shitake mushroom rigatoni with sage. "My parents will be so proud of me, because I am always afraid of vegetables."

It's a good thing she didn't see it before it was cooked. If there was ever a vegetable that could find part-time work lurking under the beds of small children, winter squash would be it.

Dumpy, lumpy and squat at best, horned and warty at worst, the winter squashes look like refugees from the "Star Wars" cantina scene. They do not look like something good to eat.

South Africa

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on November 2, 2005

Africa is huge. Of course, I knew that before we left, but there is nothing like flying over it from top to bottom to make real what a map can only suggest.

It took us more than 10 hours from the time we left Europe, flying out over the blue Mediterraneanin the late morning sunshine. Then there were long hours when we saw nothing but buff-colored desert, then more hours of dense vegetation as dusk fell.

When we finally started our descent into the sparkling lights of Cape  Town,  it was no stretch at all to believe that we really were on the other side of the world.