I love you. Have a sandwich.

This trip I was happiest cooking meals for the lovely Scottish family I stayed with for two months. We had dinner together every night, and I even helped Amelia serve dinner there for a fundraiser for Palestine. I left them two logs of my cookie dough in the freezer as a surprise.

Quotes from people whom I’ve fed:

That was a good chew!

Your food is better than my Nonna’s.

You put your foot in that! (I didn’t know that was a Southern way to say it tasted good)

Why would you want to move out when your mom cooks like this?

Way back when my boys were little, I had three friends whom I called the Holy Trinity. they’d come over and sit in the kitchen drinking coffee with condensed milk while I cooked a snack and our children played. Other friends would come over evenings for a Sister Circle, asking as they peered in my pots “what did you cook tonight JuJu?” One day I asked why no-one ever invited ME over for lunch. My girl Cat replied “you set the bar too high, JuJu. Your food is so good!” I told her “Look, I’d be happy with a cold cut sandwich on white bread if it meant I could sit up in someone else’s kitchen and eat.” I thought I’d switch stuff up once and had folks over for potluck. EVERYONE except the one person who brought a small container of potato salad, showed up with chips or cookies. I ended up in the kitchen making kale salad and potstickers. My girl M invited me over for a smorgasbord of food after that — fried fish, potato salad, a variety of other dishes and desserts. As I tucked in I said “this is what it must be like to come to my house.”

I’ve shared so many delicious meals with my family and friends. I’m smiling just thinking about them! For my birthday one year I made Tom Kha Gai, hoisin garlic eggplant, sesame green beans, rice, chicken and sticky rice with mangoes and coconut milk. I did a mezze for a friend’s going away party— plantain fufu, saffron rice, roasted vegetables, Ethiopian spiced red lentils, Kulfi and roasted pineapple. My friend brought the ingredients for me to make her a personal batch of guacamole while we ate. I have also learned to avoid cooking when I’m not “right”. During a bought of depression, I made a meatloaf so awful that my son basically told me I should have stayed in bed. I started grating carrots into the ground beef, gave up, halfway shredsded a chayote into the mix, shook in a little salt, pepper, added an egg, and formed it into a loaf. I poured barbque sauce over the whole thing thinking that might help. Nope, it didn’t.

I’m visiting one of my besties this year and I am stoked about cooking with her, and sharing meals and conversation. She knows how to throw down in the kitchen as she demonstrated with the fried chicken, greens and peach cobbler that she prepared for me once. I wonder if I can make a request while I”m there….