A big box arrived yesterday afternoon. It was from my sister Sylvia and Lyle, my brother-in-law. It was filled with two things: food and love.
This "tradition" of them sending us food for Christmas started about 5 or 6 years ago when Lyle sent us a big jar of his Puttanesca sauce and an equally large jar of French vinaigrette, based on his mother Bettina's family recipe. There were other little gifts in our box that we certainly enjoyed and appreciated. But Ted and I were simply thrilled to have a little bit of their kitchen--a kitchen we spent a lot of happy times in when Ted and I lived in Colorado--transported to ours. And so slowly, this box has evolved to be a box containing Lyle's Puttanesca (always with a bit of a kick and tons of capers and olives) and Bettina's vinaigrette along with local goat cheese, pork sausage and apple cider. Syl sent a very large wedge of authentic Parmegianno and I knew Ted would be touched since she first gave him a massive piece about a decade ago, right about the time when he was in his fabulous Marcella Hazan cooking frenzy. To this day Ted says that is one of the more thoughtful gifts he's been given.
This year's box also included both Pueblo and Boulder fire-roasted green chiles (hooray, I'm making green chili on Tuesday!) and a very large chub of Syl's favorite salami from a little salumeria in Berkeley, as well as a couple of tubes of cookie dough from a Boulder-based cookie company. And of course, there were other little surprises, like amaretti cookies and soy nut butter cups (Hey, it's Boulder people) and fancy Italian organic pasta. I don't know why but as I was carefully taking out each item of food, I started crying. Not water works crying just tears quietly spilling over eyelids crying. Happy tears of course, maybe a few bittersweet ones as well. Food is a huge connector for my sister and Lyle and me. And so all this amazing food just made my heart fill up but also made me miss them and their bustling kitchen like mad.
I wiped away the tears and smiled at the bounty--that was the only way to describe it. (My sister's unspoken motto is often "More of Everything.") And right at that moment I decided to bring the flavors of their kitchen right to our table by heating up the sauce and serving it for supper. And so I did.
And it was delicious. Almost as good as sitting at the great, big harvest table with Syl & Lyle at the farm. Not the same at all but as close as we could get.
As my sister's note in the great, big box said, food can be a universal language and I so believe that. I can't tell you how many times I've made a connection with someone, whether it's a Nigerian cab driver or a hard to read co-worker, through food. I mean, we all gotta eat, right? But also want to enjoy it. And so this time all the food said one simple word: love. Wait, no it said two words. Love and family. Hey, yo comprendo! I totally understand and feel it and want to keep having the conversation! So let's do.