With real regret, this will be my last column. Thanks in no little part to the experience I've received here at Suite101, I've taken the job of Web Editor for Boston Common Press, publishers of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country, as well as the producer for the PBS cooking show America's Test Kitchen. I hope all of you will come and visit.
For my farewell column I wanted to share a personal story that reflects on the real magic that is good home cooking - and will, I hope, encourage everyone to keep cooking for and with their family.
Several years ago, standing on the sidelines at one of my son's soccer games, I met a new woman in town. Besides her teenage son, who was my son's age, I found out the usual basics. She had two other children and had given up a career to stay at home for awhile to enjoy the children and family - but I didn't find out much else. A little later on I needed some help with a class project and she called to offer her help. We didn't really get to know each other beyond these meetings, she was more of an acquaintance.
So I missed out on hearing until quite late that she had developed cancer and despite all of the treatments was now at home in a hospice capacity. As so often happens a close friend had arranged a meal pool - people offering to cook meals 2 or 3 times a week and deliver them so the family would not be so reliant on take-out. Well, not only had she done me a favor, but as a cancer survivor, I could more than empathize with her condition. So offering to cook a meal didn't even require a second thought.
I didn't know much about her family, their tastes, any allergies, etc. and the meal had to be dropped off early, be reheatable, and be in a disposable container. Since I'm a great believer in comfort food I decided on a meat loaf, baked some corn muffins, prepped a salad, and dropped it off. It took maybe an extra ten minutes since I'd made the same meal for my own family, and cost - what - $6.00? I didn't really think about it and didn't even tell my family.
So my son was more than surprised when her son grabbed him in the high school and said, without preamble, "Do you always eat that great every night?" After he explained a little Sean said, in essence, "yeah, that was pretty typical" and came home and told me - making me feel pretty darn good.
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