Share with me a special recipe, but don’t just list out ingredients.
It was a day for family. The three of us had gathered in the kitchen, Zane and his father leaned over the bright orange pumpkin that had been specially chosen to be the very first family Halloween Jack-O-Lantern. While Zane supervised his father with the sharp and pointy knives, I cleaned up slippery pumpkin seeds for roasting. I had made up my own recipe. Butter, honey, ginger, sugar, and cinnamon mixed together with the seeds, then spread onto a cookie sheet. The kitchen began to smell like cinnamon, and that is a smell I associate with my family. I contentedly listened as my son sang a song about the color 'orange' and my husband painstakingly carved out the face of our Jack-O-Lantern. I began to think about what I could make for Thanksgiving, and how we could all gather again in the kitchen to decorate cookies for Christmas.
"Um, what are you burning?" Larry suddenly interrupted my happy reverie.
"I'm not burning anything!" I frowned at him. Then I looked at the oven, only to see a curl of smoke emanating from the back burner*. Zane sternly lectured me about being careful as I pulled out the smoking cookie sheet, laughing. My husband, also laughing, opened the kitchen windows and turned on the fan. About half of the seeds were burnt, when I was able to survey the damage. The rest were encased in a candy coating very similar to buttered toffee. Delicious. Not exactly what my completely made up recipe intended, but recipes are just a guideline anyway. For me, the day was all about family.
*For the record, this is only the tenth time that I have set my kitchen on fire. Never on purpose, of course! I am just that good.
Ooops! What a happy moment. Cinnamon does have 'family' associations, I agree. I love coming back into the house after I've made granola. Even if I'm alone, the smell is still 'family' and 'home'.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that it had a happy ending! Good family memory :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so often what recipes and cooking are about, isn't it? Bringing people together?
ReplyDeleteI love pumpkin seeds (yum!) and I love this line "The kitchen began to smell like cinnamon, and that is a smell I associate with my family."- Me, too!
:) Aw, sometimes those oops moments turned out to be the moments that became cherished as you looked back. Especially when those times made your loved ones smiled and laughed.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a lovely time with your family celebrating Halloween!
So sweet! I am amazed at how many of my family memories revolve around food. I loved getting a glimpse of your family.
ReplyDeletei love this snippet in time where we've all been- celebrating one holiday while thinking about the next. and man, your made up recipe sounds absolutely delish!!
ReplyDeleteI love how you wrote this! It was like getting to peek a look inside your home.
ReplyDeleteThose sound great! Even the burnt ones, to be honest I like the smell of burning sugar. Can you tell I've burnt a few things in my kitchen too!
ReplyDeleteSometimes "burnt" just tastes so much better! Oh and I love the smell of cinammon. That's what my candles smell like!
ReplyDeletemmmmm...yummy! So glad the fire didn't alarm anyone, but I guess as you said it wasn't a freak occurrence!
ReplyDeleteWe've had a few near fires. My favorite is not my own story, though. This is lore from my childhood, possibly not even true, though I think it probably is. My friend's parents were headed into the decline that preceded their divorce, and the Mom was making a stab at a domesticity she never really had. So she made these glorious dinners. TV dinners. Right out of the package.
ReplyDeleteIn those days, you were supposed to remove the little plastic film. Because you weren't putting them in your microwave, but in your oven.
This lady didn't realize that.
Nor did she smell the melting plastic.
Instead, she pulled out these perfected creations that looked exactly like their packages. Right up until she and her soon-to-be-ex husband poked their forks in, at which point they realized the error.
Their marriage ended soon after, though it had nothing to do with anybody's skills in the kitchen.
PS - I found you through the RemembeRed linkup :)
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