Mother's Kitchen.. (Based on a childhood memory.)

 

This week has been, I would dare say, exceptional for me, and mostly, it was today that pushed it over the top. Of course, whenever I happen upon the opportunity to share some of the wisdom of my mother with other people is a special day for me. I sort of stumbled into a conversation with a couple of friends at work in concerns to their parents and their upbringings. (Both friends are older than me.) mostly the conversation seemed to revolve around how their parents got them to eat foods that they didn’t like. Well as usual it got me to thinking about my own dear mom. They said that their parents were like, “Eat it or else!” nope. Not my mom. My mom was way too smart to try to force anything on me, nope she was too slick for that, instead she would employ all the most diabolical mom tools and tricks of the trade to ensnare me into her little trap. Let me explain.

As with most children in the late sixties or in any other period for that matter, the one sure fire way to get them to run away from the dinner table in sheer terror was to announce that there was going to be vegetables or anything else that was good for them served at the dinner. Well me being the youngest, I was always the last to know, everyone else would go to our older sister's house for dinner and I would be left behind to become the sole guinea pig. The first offering that I can remember was “Liver and onions.” the conversation as I recall went something like this:

“Hey ma? Where did everybody go?”

“They’re over at your sister's house, they’re spending the night over there, and having dinner with her and Richard.”

So, it began, her first entrapment, there on the counter was the bait, a small plate of cooked liver swimming in what looked like to me a sea of cooked sliced onions. It looked disgusting. But soon, feeling the slowly building volcanic like rumblings in my vacant belly, I had to ask.

“Hey Ma? What’s for dinner?”

As I now seem to recall, whenever she answered on those occasions, she would always keep her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face as she further baited her trap.

“Liver and onions son, now before you make a face, I made you a little plate so you could try it for yourself, I won’t force it on you, but I would like you to at least try it first. Then, if you don’t like it, you can to wait until breakfast tomorrow morning before you eat.”

Now, granted, that’s probably not an exact quote, but I do recall vividly the part about waiting until breakfast to eat, so with my rumbling belly cautiously prodding me ever forward, I slowly began to examine the contents of the plate in front of me.

“Ma. That looks yucky!”

“Well, baby, you don’t have to eat it, but it's really pretty good.”

Now here’s where the words, Hook, Line and sinker come into play. She turned around and took the knife and cut it into little tiny pieces, and told me that it would make it easier to chew. So when she turned back to the stove I slowly edged the fork closer to the plate and sank it into the first piece, and ever so carefully lifted the fork to my mouth, and wouldn’t you know it? She was right,

I did end up liking it.

My brothers and sisters all thought I was a sucker, they told me that Mom played a mom trick on me. Meaning, she got me to eat something that was good for me by tricking me into thinking that the whole thing was my decision. My idea. Well ma played that trick on me more times than I could count growing up, Broccoli, cauliflower, Spinach, you name it, and she got me to eat it willingly. But upon reflection, now I would be more inclined to think that it was testament to her talents in the kitchen, more so than trickery. If you think about it, nobody ruled the kitchen like our mothers, she could make anything taste great. She had that mom magic, nobody did anything like her, they never have, and they never will, geeez, wouldn’t you know it? Now I got myself a hankering for a plate of Liver and onions. I wonder if they make it like mom did?.. Naw… Highly unlikely.

~Scratch~