Tonight was a special night. After spending the 2 most disastrous weeks I could ever wish on my worst enemies - having happened solely to prove Murphy's law, I am sure - I had a Great Enlightening evening, tonight.
My cousin Natasha arrived from Canada on Monday. She will be living with us for the next little while and working as an English teacher. And my cousin Jorge, also arrived from Portugal on monday for a week-long fair at the Congress Center near our house. We invited Jorge to dinner, tonight.
Jorge is a great guy - he is always ready to help, entertain, party, educate, ... or anything else that he can do to improve the current situation. Everytime he comes to Madrid on Business, he comes to our house for dinner, and my husband and I spend the night laughing, learning and making memories. Tonight, was one of those nights.
Andrew and I are not your average couple - a part from our love affair for wine and food, we are a couple who speaks multiple languages. But much to Andrew's surprise, many in my family speak the same odd mixture of 4 languages.
Tonight, as Jorge muddled through English, French, Portuguese and Spanish (to entice Natasha to the European way of living), Jorge happened to enlighten me and teach me something about meal preparation that I had never before considered, and in one blunt statement confirmed the truth to the age old saying that: "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach".
When mentioning to him (and reminding my husband) that my birthday was in 2 weeks and that after all these years I was expecting a Thermomix (a 1000€ kitchen appliance that acts as a Mixer, CrockPot and food processor all-in-one)... I heard;
"Carla", Jorge said, " the joys a man gets from his wife's cooking is unmatched by anything in else that she can do for him in public. If my wife wanted to replace herself in the kitchen - and all the personal attention that goes into it - with a machine such as a Thermomix - I would see it as the right to replace her - and all the attention I give her - with an inflatable doll."
And it dawned on me, that as true as that statement was, no one could put it clearer (or more crass) :
Cooking is not only about the final product. There are many ready-made meals that are delicious straight out of a can, or ordered by phone - but they are not special! What makes a truly special meal is the love, detail, time and thought that goes into preparing it. Just like in any relationship, it cannot be rushed, and steps cannot be skipped. The memories created around a good meal cannot be replaced with anything else, and if we think back on our fondest memories... most of them happened around a dinner table, in a kitchen or sitting around with a drink.
What do you think?
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