Two years ago, I invited three young women who had shown me great support through social media (ie Facebook, Twitter, DaisyMartinez) by recreating my recipes, posting pictures, and showing up for events I held in different venues in the city to come to my home for a private cooking lesson. After initial squeals of “OMG! What do I wear (aprons and comfortable shoes!), and “I gotta do my hair” (what you’ll do is put it in a ponytail!), they were ready to visit on a particularly cold and gray Saturday morning. By the end of that lesson, and sharing that meal together, amidst tears and hugs we decided were sisters for life! In the past two years I have witnessed these young women blossoming and making great life changes; in fact, I wrote about our experience in a chapter of the anthology book “Count On Me” written by Las Comadres. One of them has gotten married, one of them left her job as a social worker and matriculated and graduated from my alma mater The French Culinary Institute and is having a baby next month, and the last one is making huge strides as a blogger and taking inventory of her personal life. I like to think that our Saturday afternoon, two years ago, had something to do with their journey. SO, in the spirit of the full circle moment, I decided to have the girls, Rachel White, Mimi Vega and Ofelia A. Perez, over once more to cook, laugh, and yes, even cry together. This was significant to me because I was also celebrating the first day I met my now adopted son, Jd Urban whose Everyday People Project changed my life. He was there the first time at the request of Rachel, to document the lesson, and this time, at my request, to document yes, but also to celebrate our cumulative friendship. We sliced chicken cutlets, pounded them until they were paper thin, and made them in a lemony Franchese sauce, fragrant with Sauvignon Blanc and sweet with butter. It was the perfect foil for the spicy broccoli di rape fragrant with garlic and olive oil. In between, we caught up on each other’s lives, gave advice, took some advice, and always laughed! I sat at the head of that table with Rachel, Mimi, and Ofelia, and together we served the meal that we all participated in preparing to the rest of our friends that had joined us to celebrate.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 21:26:31 +0000