Son Is Cooking Today

I am thankful for this family of mine, my son.



Today I also want to recall the years I lived in Manhattan with my daughter, Angel. We were very poor and far from the big Lebanese family (ex in-laws) or my mid-western family and my young son.

I had been a chef for a Jesuit Community for a time and had years of fixing the family feasts and no longer wanted an obligatory holiday (still don't). There were those twin aspects that put me off. Cooking was something I had to do daily for so many years, I hated it. I also had been rejecting the notion of lockstep American holiday traditions. It was clear these were manufactured for corporate goals (Hallmark, Agri-business, Transportation, Retailers in general, Oil).

Fun fact: Thanksgiving used to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Roosevelt changed it to the third Thursday to provide an additional week for retailers in the Christmas season.

So, we dined on escargot and other delicacies from Zabar's. I loved snails. It was a real treat and we giggled a lot.

Since that time I still have holidays away from the big main family gatherings by choice, unless cajoled by my son to join him with his friends (once is enough). Today, my son and I will continue the tradition he and I started more than a decade ago of preparing food together. The food preparation has become the joy for me again. Besides, I love that I taught him and now he teaches me.

If I were alone in a tiny room I'd have to fix something with the smells of this day.