Familiar Vegetables!

I remember my Grandma Jones preparing an impromptu Saturday afternoon lunch. We would drop in and she would go into her cellar canning closet and grab a jar of beans, frozen corn from the downstairs fridge and some beets. She had planted and canned all of these the previous season. There were also jars of homemade jam of blueberry and raspberry. We would sit down to lunch and there were those beets that I had refused to try when I was really little. They were just too strange. When I became 10 and a little more courageous I tried them. I ended up loving the taste of beets. As I grew older, beets ended up becoming one of my favorite vegetables. Eventually, a Pavlovian effect grew in me....now each time I taste them I am transported back to Grandma Jones' kitchen in Illinois. I immediately feel happy and like a child standing next to my grandmother in the kitchen of her sweet pink house. I feel happy and at home. I also feel healthy with the first bite.

Today, I took both Ella and Grace to Whole Foods Market. We stepped into the produce section. For some reason, I was pulled in a very hard way toward the beets. The girls followed me with the cart. First Grace said "mom I don't like"...then Ella says "Mommy , I love I love , I love! Mommy me I love"...I could relate to Ella because I had the same passionate feeling for them. Grace says "No mom...tongue RED"....I laughed and said..."You know beets? Did you have these in Ethiopia." They both said .."Yes mom" and I said " Did your grandmother make them for you.?" and they said "No my mom made." Right then I felt very sad....I was standing in front of the girls planning dinner with them. I wonder what it would be like if I was sent to a far away country when I was little. Would a familiar vegetable bring excitement to my heart too? I wonder if the mere sight of a beet when I was 6 would make me jump for joy in remembrance of a home I had to leave (even though I hated the taste). Would I immediately remember my mother? I wonder if upon seeing the beet I would also remember my mom's smell when she was cooking the beets or if I would remember how my grandmother used to let me play with her dolls when she was peeling potatoes. For myself, I miss my grandmother when I think about her kitchen and her cooking. I long for my grandmother and I had the privilege seeing her live a long life. Her life was not cut short and our time together although it wasn't long enough...it was blessed and not cut down by tragedy. The simple things (like standing in the kitchen next to the women you love cooking vegetables) are so important and we take them for granted way too much. I am alive..healthy, breathing and planning on making beets for a side dish with my daughters tonight. Ella, Grace and Jared's mom Bayoush never lived long enough to have a conversation with her 10 year old and 6 year old on whether they even liked beets or what they would want to eat tonight. WOW! We then walked over to the Sweet Potatoes...they both squealed...I said "sweet potatoes in Ethiopia too" They said "yes...." So tonight we peeled sweet potatoes and made beets together. When push came to shove Ella spit out the beets and said "OOOO YUCK"...she'll learn to like them again or maybe when she grows up she will love them simply because they remind her of me.... I am feeling a bonding with Bayoush as I try to get them to love this great vegetable.....My children are teaching me to savor everyday and to not take for granted the simple things like choosing vegetables with your children.