Sunday, January 23, 2011

Why I Cook

Sometimes I feel a little out of place in today's eat-out world...maybe a little old fashioned or that people think I judge them when I talk about how much I cook, knowing they may not cook like I do.  So read on to know 
Why I Cook!
There have been three amazing cooks in my life, both of my grandmothers and my mom.  I have spent many hours watching all of them sweat over a stove out of pure love for their families.  Or so I thought.  Before having my own family, I used to view their cooking as sort of bothersome really.  It seemed to always mean that we had to come home early from doing something fun because they "had to get supper going." 
And yes, they all use this term.  
The foundation of my cooking every night and eating with my family, children included, began in May of 1991.  My mom and I went from a family of 2 to a family of 5!  Yes an only child had to learn to share at the ripe age of 12...with 2 boys!  Of the many years that we spent together there are more memories centered around our kitchen table then anywhere else and we made a LOT of memories.  Three kids going three different directions and two hard working parents could easily slip into an eat-out frenzy night after night.  But what I saw was a woman work ten plus hours a day, come in and cook a full course meal and we all sat down at the same time, together, and ate.  And NO, you could not get up if you were the first one done.  You sat and waited for everyone else, because that is when the magic happened.  This is where we bonded, argued, fought, and loved each other.  Right there around an oval table that was old, old, old. 
I began to progress in my thinking when I was in college.  
In my first year I began traveling every Wednesday to my grandmother's house for dinner and a visit.  I would email my granddad my dinner menu request, including a dessert, and there it would sit on Wednesday night.  I realized that I was looking forward to the visit more than the food when I had a hard time coming up with what I wanted to eat. At this same time my mother's parents moved to our town and I began frequent visits to their home during meal time as well.  Same good foods but this is where I began to actually enjoy my grandfather's very long stories about well...everything. 
So what I strive for today is to not make it all about the food, although I hope to make favorites for my girls that they will yearn for while in college or call for the recipe one day, it is about the time and our undivided attention that we are giving them night after night.  And while I feel like I am giving them the gift that I was given, I must say that I am the one that has been given the gift.  It is at our table that I first heard Olivia pray, watched all of our faces when we realized that what I made was just awful, hear the tales of the playground, watched Addison grow from eating in the Bumbo seat on top of the table to sitting by herself in a chair, and the best gift to date has to be hearing Addison pray the prayer that she has heard her big sister say for two years, and the smile that comes on her face when she is done, oh and the loud voice she uses to say 
"Amen".
We all have a relationship with food, good, bad, sometimes really good, and sometimes really bad (like my friend who thinks we can still eat 6 Oreos at a time, yes that was our rule...when we were 10).  I'm no chef, I don't cook from my head, and I can't make it taste good without a recipe.  But, I can follow a recipe, I know how to use an oven, a microwave, and a stove.  That means I can put food on my table every night, five courses or one...it doesn't matter.  What matters is the part just before the first bite and all the stories that follow.  I promise you will leave full...full of promise, hope, satisfaction, joy, and memories that will last forever!    


P.S. I am not judging you, just wanting you to leave as "full" as I do.  :)



Thursday, January 20, 2011

Mama Bouchard...That's Me!



So excited for this great opportunity to share a little of my world with my family and friends.  So many of them don't even know our whole story (let's face it, once you read it you wouldn't tell your family either until much, much later!).  My world was turned upside down March 21, 2001 when I met my husband.  There he was dancing on a table in Panama City without a care in the world.  Now if you know me now you would be surprised that I would look twice at someone doing such a thing but hey, I was 22 and graduating from college and this was the first Spring Break I had ever been to in my life!  I had my two girlfriends by my side and met my hunk because one of my super hot girlfriends attracted the attention of one of his friends.  My hunk rescued me from one of his not so glamorous friends and we have been attached ever since.  We dated long distance, me in NC and him in Vegas, for five and a half months.  Knowing that he could not ever move to be with me I knew a decision would have to be made at some point I just didn't know when.  Then there was this cold windy day when my step-brother dropped me off at the airport to fly to Vegas.  I was dolled in my newest, cutest outfit to see my honey when I boarded the plane.  That is when the nightmare happened.  It was a Friday night and I was sitting on the runway with the worst flood of the century.  At the time I declared God was flooding the world just to keep me away from Vegas.  After spending the night in the Dallas airport...yes I was too stubborn to go to a hotel (not surprising to anyone who knows me), I decided then and there I would never do this again...and I didn't!  I promptly got off that plane in Vegas in my wrinkled cute outfit, hugged my man and declared I was Vegas bound! Now, all I had to do was break this to my mom!  More on that later!  You just had to know the background of how I ended up in this never controllable (I am a control freak) military world that has become my crazy life that I wouldn't trade for anything, except maybe for a kid who has come to my bed three times in one night, three nights in a row...but then of course I would want them back after I got a good nap.  
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