Food for Thought with this week's Menu

I was thinking about this menu endeavor I have taken on this year as I was cooking for a few hours on Sunday.  I made a favorite Big Fat Greek Meal and thinking how nice it is to sit down to something we all love and look forward to, no matter what.

My mother, on of eight, is at the top of the ladder. So growing up we had lots of cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and family around for every event. Birthdays, first communions, holidays, new arrivals, every occasion was marked with food - Lots of Food.  A lot of that food was made by my mother.

This came to me last night as I asked, ordered, begged, and threatened my boys to come into the kitchen with me while I made The Big Fat Greek Meal. (never happened) I was thinking of all the meals that my mother prepared for 20+ people on any given weekend.  A full family holiday party was easily over 50 people with out of town family flocking in.

But as I cooked I wasn't reminiscing so much about the food, or special recipes, or hours of prep work made fun or festive by gathering all of the generations in the kitchen to cook together. There was just food.  There are certainly things that my East Coast Cousins attribute to their Ohio visits. Grandma's Potato salad, BBQ Beef,  Macaroni salad (with Old Bay Seasoning), Cheesy Potatoes, Easy Lasagna, and of course Strawberry Barbe recently renames Strawberry Crack.  My mother acquires the recipe somewhere and for the life of her still can not remember.  She brought it to exactly two events when it became so famous that everyone was asking for the recipe. When she gave it to about the 10th person without a name on it they said, "You should just call it Strawberry Barbe" and we did for 25 years.

When I think of the bond that food has and the power that it holds I want to make sure that my boys know that feeling. The joy of turning a simple box of cake mix into the best Star Wars Birthday cake EVER. Of watching people's face light up when they see their favorite food on the table.  Of healing the sick of body and sometimes of heart with something you just threw together.

The next time that you are in a food rut bust out your Grandmother or Mother's recipe's....or your own. Just cherish the love behind the food that makes it the best thing you've ever had.

Menu for March 14th

The Non-winning essay

It didn't win but it was great to have skin in the game - thank you to everyone who read all 62 revisions. Love you!
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2016 Erma Bombeck Essay Contest Entry

“I Married It”

Being from the Midwest and having strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, and the last name Pimenidis, I often get the question, “Where’d you get a name like that?” That’s a great story.  It’s a modern day I Love Lucy except he is all Greek with olive skin, dark hair, deep brown eyes, and a loud passionate personality.

I transferred from a big university to a small college to pursue a degree in education. One night desperate to finish a paper before it finished me I went into the computer lab.  After spending an hour trying to figure out how to use the computer and another two hours trying to type it with two fingers I was nearly finished.  When suddenly this, this, Greek comes busting through the door of the computer lab. A relatively quiet computer lab, except for all the buzzing, clicking, whirring, and humming of 90’s computer machinery.

He yells from the door, “Hey everybody! How’s it going?!” I was speechless. Oh, but it didn’t stop there. He proceeded to go around the room and talk – loudly – to everyone.  Totally miffed I huffed and puffed and sent my paper to the printer.  Then I stormed out of there bewildered. Who did that man think he was anyway!

He was the kicker for the football team and I was the “transfer” student from the big university.  He was the Big “Greek” on Campus and I was the uptight, off campus education student just trying to graduate.  It was a small school which meant our paths often crossed and soon I called him the Geek and he called me the Bitter.

Well, several months later after I had returned from a visit to my former University to see sorority sisters and catch up with friends there, I was sitting in the lobby of our small college classroom building.  I had a newly acquired button on my school bag that simply read “GO GREEK"

He immediately came over to where I was sitting and said, “You gotta give me that button!” I was in a pretty good mood so I said “No way, I don’t even like you” smiling and hugging my backpack playfully.  To which my future husband replied, “I’m the Greek, everybody likes me. You have a beautiful smile you know that? I see you around, but I don’t see you smile much, you should do that more often.”

I’m not sure how, but those few words, that simple compliment was enough to sway me from hater to dater.  It was the first of many Humphrey Bogart moments.  That’s why whenever someone asks where I got that name, I just smile and say – “I married it.”

Menu and Calendar

It's been a beautiful day and a busy day. Both things are good.  Here's to a week where I may get some writing done!!

Menu for March 7th

365 Resolutions here we come!