hey jud

This time last year we were at the top of Mt. Philo looking at the view across Lake Champlain, trying to reconcile a life of new possibilities with an unexpectedly sudden ending. Just two months after her move to an independent living apartment in Vermont, my Mom passed away on Veterans' Day.

I spent time last night and again this morning, playing the piano and letting the music both remind me of her, and soothe me. Some songs made me feel like I was practicing on the old spinet on Castle Street and she was just in the kitchen, doing dishes and calling out occasional words of encouragement. Other songs I knew were particular old favorites of hers and I wished I had played them for her in recent years. She knew those years of lessons had inspired my constant playing while I lived at home, but did she know how it continues even now?

Among the many songs I play, the one that brings Mom closest is 'Mother's Evening Prayer', a hymn by Mary Baker Eddy. I learned it in Sunday School and always loved it, but when it was sung at my Grandma Engel's funeral, it took on deeper associations of a mother's presence, peace and joy, and constant, comforting love. On one of her last days in the hospital, when she had stopped talking or opening her eyes, I read the words of that hymn to her. As I finished the last line, 'And mother finds her home and heavenly rest', she opened her eyes for just a minute, and smiled. She knew her mother's work was done.

Somehow I'd forgotten just how much energy two young kids can have, but our NYC weekend brought it all back - the nonstop energy plus the copycat syndrome. Whatever Ollie did, Minna did the same. That may bode well for her on skis this winter because she'll certainly be out there trying. We got to play with the kids a lot but also walked around on our own a bit. That's when we stopped to listen and watch some guys on Bleecker Street singing doo wop like it was still the 50's. When I spotted the rising sun making the buildings across the river gleam like gold, I couldn't resist exposing myself to get a quick photo. I just hope pretty much everyone else at the Standard was still asleep.

Maybe my ingredients are improving, maybe I'm getting a better sense of what will go together, and maybe the recipes to be found are just much better than they used to be. The past two days I've had particularly successful, Google cooking meals. Both times the recipe was the top result and both times it was from a food blog I had never read before.

My first search, for pork loin red cabbage, brought me a very tasty horse radish crusted pork tenderloin on a bed of red cabbage from the Broadsheet blog. The bonus by good fortune, was that I already had the crucial other ingredients; horseradish just bought for something else and goat cheese which I do pretty much keep on hand. Alas, that blog is no longer active but the archives are still there.

The next night I googled mushrooms farro potatoes, and discovered the Purple Foodie blog, after which we sat down to a lovely bowl of farro, potato and mushroom stew. Enticing pictures on the right side of the home page linked to other, particularly favorite recipes, so soon I'll be baking Hasselback Potatoes, the most scrumptious looking crispy baked potatoes topped with pesto, and saying South Beach be damned.

I do love my cookbooks where I discover new things to try and often return to old favorites, but when you've got that certain combination of stuff in the fridge needing to be used up, there's really nothing so quick and easy as Google cooking.