I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done! Steven Wright.
This quote made me laugh out loud, as I thought to myself, Oh my goodness, how long have I had the page numbers done! This and other quotes appear on the side bar of my blogs each time they get posted, with ideas of tags to add and so on. I love the reminder about adding tags, as I often forget them. I wrote a book many years ago, but have since thrown it in the bin, as it is true what people say, we all have a book inside us, but the first one is usually crap! I’ve kept thinking about writing a number of books, and continue to work towards some of them. I have pages and pages of titles and chapters, even have some chapters written; I used the NaNoWriMo challenge to kick me in the butt, and my first book of poetry is actually almost in print. I have family and friends whose first comment after we say hello, is have you finished your cookbook? It is as if all they care about is my food! Just before I went in for brain surgery, a procedure where the surgeon had prepped my husband and kids I might not come out of it, or I might come out with some sort of brain impairment, my eldest son said to me, Please don’t take this the wrong way, but would you write out your Yellow Chicken Curry recipe before you go into hospital, just in case! I did, and I have also written out many recipes for the cookbook, and hope one day that too becomes more than just page numbers. My youngest son lived in the UK for almost a year, and he too asked me to send him many recipes just in case the dementia took them all away! One of the things I am annoyed about that I feel sure is because of the dementia, is I can’t find a bundle of recipes from my chefs course. I have enough cookbooks to set up a shop, but not finding these particular recipes has really ticked me off! Weird really, as they are just words, put together on paper talking about ways to prepare food. Life it seems, is a funny thing, and we all have different goals. Writing and food , wrapped around love, seem to me to be the things that sustain our lives, and bring us together, so the planned cookbook, and my writing, and your reading is bonding us all, and is making me think a lot more deeply than I did before embarking on this blogging thing.
They say, ‘you are what you eat’, but it may be truer to say that you are what you cook. For those of us who can, it is one way, these culinary contributions, that we make the quality of life of others better. Cuisine is much more that simply cooking and eating – it feeds the heart and feeds the soul. I reckon, Kate, that it’s cool to be cared about for your cooking … get Pete working on that one … along with everything, it’ll be another great legacy, one that is bound in love and guarantees imortality. BTW – can you post that Yellow Chicken Curry recipe?? (LOL) souns yummy.
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Thanks Philip… yes, it is indeed very cool to be to be cared about for my cooking, and the sharing at our regular Thursday night family meal since the boys have all grown up is an absolute blessing, and something we all look forward to each week. I especially love it when they visit unexpectedly when we are cooking and exclaim how much they love the smell and wish they were staying for dinner! Occasionally I manage to be organised enough to send them away with plastic containers full of food too, as when you have cooked for hundreds, it is very challenging to cook for one or two and not have left overs. If we can find an excuse to squeeze another night eating together in, we do! And I guess along with the hoards, you’ll just have to wait for my book for that yummy yellow chicken curry recipe!!
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Shouldn’t we all write cook books, tho’, because we all disappear in the end and leave a hole in somebody’s stomach, as well as their life… I used when I was younger to get on the phone from France to England, at a time when telephonining was by no means cheap, just to get my mother’s advice (she is now about to be 95) on a recipe I was in the middle of. My children have since done the same with me, always across seas. Easier now with text messages, although explanations can be lengthy. My mother has never written things down, but there are three of us, so between us we could probably improvise, and we know her preferred books. Food is so much part of family life and memories. We should all be getting some of our knowledge down on paper.
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I just LOVE your reflection… we all disappear in the end and leave a hole in somebody’s stomach, as well as their life. It is profound, and tells the truth in such a beautiful way. Thank you. Sharing our recipes, and then sharing our food and love together with family and friends, is in the end, I think, all that matters.
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I remember the day of your brain surgery very clearly. That son of yours lobbed at my house (the house that is now your house!!) for the day after you’d gone into theatre. He went back to the hospital in the evening with Pete & Matt so that he’d be there when you woke up. It felt like forever waiting for the text message letting us know that you’d made it through. Xxxxx
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Oh dear, you’ve made me cry (again)! I am glad I made it through too, and was so glad to have you and your family by my side, and besides Charles, and also Pete and Matt at that time. Love always xxx
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Hmmm, sorry you are all feeling hungry now… my next Project 366 chat on my Conversation Page will have to include pancakes with that cup of tea !! feel free to drop by xx
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Your son’s comment made me laugh and made me hungry!
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Your love for me has bound us together for years, it’s now time for me to become an ingredient. Sorry about the food puns but feeling hungry after your blog.
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Good luck writing your book! I am writing one as well. It is quite a journey to write a cookbook.
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It is the cooking and photography that is the next big step for me as only a few recipes to add into my file. Luckily I have a husband who has produced cookbooks for clients, so I have some freebie help for the next step!! It is finding the time and energy, and him finding the time in between having to be the only bread winner in the family now, as well as being my carer the rest of the time, that is holding us back… plus of course the fact that … typing is not writing a book! Good luck with yours, and thanks for joining the conversation.
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