Six Years Without The Chef

 It has been six years since we lost the Master Chef of this household. I wonder what she would have thought of some of my most recerntly acquired tastes. would she have liked the Caribbean and Puerto Rican influences in my diet? I wonder.

I work at a school where there are some interesting food choices in the campus .I have finally tried jerk chicken and loved it. There'sa fieriness to it that add totp the meat's flavor. Would my Mom would have liked it? That's a hard question. She would have appreciated the work going into it but the spiciness may have put her off a bit.I know she would have had fun in replicating the recipe. She may have tweaked it and would have eliminated fiery Scotch bonnets and added more crushed peppers and/or nutmeg. She would have also tried making a vegan version of it as well. Then there are the tostones  and empanada from the Borracua stand. She would have like the tostones if they had the pink sauce, a mix of ketchup, mayo and some hot sauce.I think she would have like the empanadas too, enjoying their crispiness  and either the tender spiced chicken insid or the pizza one , rich with sauce and mozzarella.

My Mom was open to all sorts of recipes and flavors. I know she would have dome some amazing recipes with my Berbere spice that I use for my Ethiopian stews. Would she have approved of my taking the family recipes for both the broccoli and green bean salad and changing them slightly? I use onion powder instead of fresh minced onions. Ir's easier and the onion flavor is nicely distributed. Using the powder also gets rid of the threat of heartburn which comes with eating fresh cut onions.As for air frying, she'd probably OK it. She would have liked the ease of it  along with the crunchiess it gives to almost everything. She would have definitely gotten one and used it on a daily basis if they had come out forty or thirty years ago. (why didn;t they? There's not much technology in them- they're jsut a mini convection ovens after all). All our meals would have been cooked in them from chicken to ham. all made delicious thanks to her magic touch

My Mom would have like the new addtions to my diet. She would have liked my air fryer.They would have been perfect for her.