I grew up with a mother who, consciously or not, equates food with love. Visit her home, and she is not happy unless she can feed you something, anything. I had a boyfriend in college who used to practically make himself sick because he was too polite to say no to any of her offers of food. "Yes, thank you, Mrs. R., I'd love a fourth helping of mashed potatoes."
I imagine that this food=love mentality is part of the reason that dinner was always a family meal. Always. And not really in a forced way, either. We just ate dinner together. (I suppose it helped that we were all pathetically un-athletic, so we had no after-school sports to deal with.) Either way, those family dinners definitely are partially responsible for the close relationship my sisters and I have with my parents as adults. Meals were times to nourish our bodies, and our relationships (although I do recall one meal ending with me going to my room for calling my father an asshole...).
Even though I have spent much of my adult life swearing I won't turn into my mother one day, I realize now that my love of food and cooking for my family and friends stems from my own, inherited, food=love mentality.
So when my friend, Chris, asked me if I'd be interested in a club all about food, I was totally on board. We share, on varying levels, the food=love idea, and meet monthly to talk all-things-food: recipes, food allergies, cooking for our families, food politics, local farm events...the many ways food is woven throughout our days and brings us together. In between meetings, we blog together on the same topics. Now, 60+ posts later, our blog is live.
Check it out, subscribe to our feed, and join in the conversation (and drool over Chris's awesome food photography!). :)
Wow. Beautiful post. Moved me to tears.. Thanks Leslie for everything.
ReplyDelete