A Year Without The Chef

It has been a year of not having my Mom for recipes and advice. I miss her and I miss her culinary wisdom. The year without her has been sad but interesting. I had to grow and even challenge myself as a home chef and a baker.

The one thing I truly miss is her advice. I always needed it when I was writing about family or Piedmontese or Swabian dishes. She knew. Luckily there are others who can fill me in. I was fortunate enough to interview the Brass Sisters of the PBS show "Food Flirts" and began a foodie relationship with them. It is rare that I do ask for their advice but it i s freely given. I have had to rely on my brother for memories . "Is the taste similar to what they made?" They being our mother and her mother., our Nonna. Sometimes I rely on different websites to help (as any of my readers/ followers will know).All Recipes has been a big help. This is the place to go to for all sorts of recipes from breakfast to snacks.I have also looked at the New York Times Wednesday and Sunday Food sections for inspiration and help. Some worked , some didn't. Making someone else's recipes is not like making family ones. There's no connection  there - no stories and memories of the flavor. Yet cooking is also for trailblazers and that's what I had to become too.

There were also so many highs in the last year. I wish my Mom could have been here to experience them with me. She would have loved the Brass Sisters interview. She may have joined in, offering some of her advice and recipes to them. She would have been thrilled by them as well, because she was a big PBS cooking show fan. I'm sure she would have gently pressured me to interview Lidia Bastianich, or maybe Chris Kimball. She would have been very curious about my interview with Carolyn Robb, Prince Charles' personal chef.My Mom would have recreated the Yorkshire pudding recipe and we would have  doused it with Heintz's roast beef gravy.I think she would have also been amazed that I adapted both her chili and tomato sauce recipes for the crock pot. She was never one for it.Also, how would she feel about me adding California wildflower honey to both? She was more sugar or sliced carrots type of sauce maker. She also would have thought me crazy for baking two hundred cookies, twenty-five cupcakes and one marble layer cake at Christmastime last year. She would have loved the lemon poppy seed cake the oneI made last week ,especially because it was a scratch cake and she loved those.

A year without the chef. She may not be with me physically - but her spirit - her advice and recipes will live on. That's a warm comfort when I feel the chill of loneliness while cooking and baking.