When I finished my University training
and subsequently couldn't find a teaching job,
I went to Emerson College in Sussex England to do
the Waldorf School Teacher Training and then go on from there.
The course was over full, but I insisted and they relented.
John Davy's wise condition for my admission was
that I invite fellow students who came from afar for a Thanksgiving meal
and thinking about it now,
that was the beginning of my cooking feasts.
There was a big pumpkin stuffed with vegan risotto,
cream cheesey pastry stuffed with mushrooms,
Evelyn's cranberry sauce, apple crumble, salads and cheeses.
Yes I do in fact remember the menu, so special it was for me
and my 25 guests. 45 years ago.
Now it is Thanksgiving 2019, and I am content with mashed potatoes
creamed with milk and a dollop of sour cream,
some dill for color and taste, whole carrots on top
positioned like wheel spikes.
It's the attitude towards what's on the plate that counts.
Real food. Delicious.
I created a salad last week that mirrors perfectly my present palate.
I love escarole, flat or frizzy leaved, a fresh Winter salad possibility,
its slight bitterness there as a reminder that it's not Summer,
easily alieved with a yoghurt dressing
Escarole sliced in thin strips, cubes of chicken braised in olive oil,
2 pickles cut up into bits, cubed potaoes. The sauce is sour cream,
yoghurt, mustard, dill, raspberry vinegar and salt and pepper.
It's a kind of comfort food,
since I created it the day my friend Ines Benter died.
Salted with my tears.
But again, I do not want to get sucked again into the melancholy mode.
So-
It's almost December, and that means in Germany
an abundance of Christmas Markets, with traditional foods,
Christmas tree ornaments, music in the Churches.
I love it when it gets icy cold and the wood stove is on,
Bach's Christmas Oratorio playing
when I shuffle through the snow and come in for tea or soup or fresh bread,
which I share with Lothar, and of late with Monsieur Minou
who also demands a bowl of something.
As it turned out I didn't do the Waldorf School training.
I studied Eurythmy, moved to Germany, married Lothar,
did a lot of performing and teaching,
travelled between Europe and USA with Lothar's sculpture work,
and found a reason for being in a little village in Hessen
dancing with handicapped adults.
Isn't life amazing?!
