So, I'm shocked and Cindy is simply amazed that I'm enjoying my new duties as chief cook in our home. Given my previous feeble efforts and general preference for take out, it does seem a bit strange that I have taken to it so easily and with great pleasure.
Cindy thinks I'm channeling my Dad. He did many things to support his family including custodial work, general labor, and tool and die machinist. One job he really enjoyed was catering. He and my Uncle Frank did private catering and ran concessions stands at a shooting club, church benefits, a local high school's football games, and the former training champ for the NY Football Giants (where I met Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and Y. A. Tittle but that's another story.) Along with other kids in the family I worked for them from about 7 years old on. I picked up a lot of garbage, scrubbed a lot of pots and pans, served a lot of customers, and eventually made countless hot dogs and hamburgers. We worked many private events and I got to watch my Dad do everything associated with it from planning to preparation to cooking to serving to clean up. I never really did any actual cooking but certainly absorbed the process and did pretty much everything else.
Little things come back to me after 50 plus years. When I was making (a pretty good if I do say so myself) Turkey Chili this afternoon, I suddenly realized I was doing something my father always did. I got out all the ingredients, utensils, and cookware I needed in advance, laid them all out in the order I would need them on the butcher block, and visualized the entire process before so much as lighting a burner. The rest was simple execution. I learned that from my father. Thanks, Dad.
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