A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children… (Prov 13:22)

Like everyone else, I cooked at home a lot during the quarantine. I cook a lot anyway, so things really didn’t change much in that regard. I enjoy cooking. Home cooking is healthier, and it saves money. In the past few months, I’ve perfected several recipes, tried new ones, and combined old recipes to create something new.
I learned to cook by helping my mom and my grandma. I was usually charged with a simple task such as stirring hamburger meat as it cooked and then pouring store bought spaghetti sauce onto it. My grandma kept boxes of Jiffy brownie mix and Shawnee Mills cornbread mix on hand, and my job was to add the eggs and water or milk. These simple things let me know that cooking was a job I could do, and as I grew older, I took on more tasks until I had my own home and did all the cooking.

My grandma’s big noodles (my childhood name for her dumplings) were one of my favorite dishes growing up. I watched her make them countless times and even tried my hand at it once or twice, but I was never able to come close to the perfection of Grandma’s dumplings. She used a little of this, a pinch of that, and the consistency of my dumplings was never right. My mom now makes them occasionally, and hers are a close second to Grandma’s.

Like many people, I have recipes I prefer. I tend to stick with Tex-Mex and Italian dishes, but lately I’ve ventured into fixing Asian-inspired dishes as well. I know these recipes are far from authentic, but cooking them myself means I’m able to tweak them to my preferences. One of my favorite new dishes is this skinny orange chicken recipe with baked jasmine rice. (I reduce the amount of honey by about half. The original is too sweet for me.) I serve it with roasted broccoli or asparagus.

What is your favorite dish? Please comment on this post, or share it on my Facebook author page so that we can all try it!

Dear Jesus, thank you for the legacy left by my grandma. I’m thankful for the memories we made together and all the fun times we had that were interspersed with life lessons. Help me to share the things she taught me about you with others. Amen.