The Kitchen Daughter by McHenry Jael

Author:McHenry, Jael [McHenry, Jael]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2011-04-12T07:00:00+00:00

IN THE MORNING we pack and sort, sort and pack, with me dragging my metaphorical feet every step of the way. We work on the books in the library, and it goes very slowly, because the girls help. They pull books out from the lowest shelves and try to read the titles to us, which is a comedy. Shannon can get most of them right. Parker’s about fifty-fifty. On the medical textbooks even Amanda is lost, with words in their titles like hematoma and esophageal, and I’m the one with a slight edge from listening to Dad’s bedtime stories over the years. Dad’s bedtime stories included words like phalange. Phalange was on a page with pharmaceutical and pharmacology, but the page was in one of these medical dictionaries, not the regular one. I spot Parker tugging on a wide, heavy book that may actually be the same book I learned it from. She tugs and tugs, and when it comes free from the shelf, she tips right over. Luckily her sister breaks her fall, and everything is laughter instead of tears. I’m starting to think life at Amanda’s might not be so bad after all. I’m not fully convinced, but I’m thinking.

Late in the morning, Amanda says to me, “We need to think about L-U-N-C-H. In a little bit, maybe thirty minutes down the road.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, I wrote you that check for groceries, didn’t I? We’ve got plenty of things that aren’t peanut butter and jelly in the house.”

“I like peanut butter and jelly!” says Parker. “I like raspberry! I like grape!”

Amanda says to her, in the bubblier, softer version of her usual voice, “Yes, we all do, honey, but sometimes it’s nice to have a change. Don’t you think it would be nice if your aunt Ginny would cook us a lunch?”

“Yeah!” says Parker. I am starting to learn that she sounds enthusiastic about nearly everything.

“Sure, I could come up with something,” I say. “I’ll see what there is.”

In the kitchen I start to work, setting out a pot, gathering ingredients. I poke around in the refrigerator and the cabinets. A small pile of things grows on the counter. Onion, spices, butternut squash.

“How about soup?” I call out to Amanda.

“Soup? Sure.”

I have a recipe marked in one of my cookbooks for butternut squash soup. Since the recipe is in a book, I think it’s safe for not calling ghosts, but just in case, I’ll change a few things as I go. The flavors aren’t what intrigue me anyway. It’s the technique. Usually for steaming squash you peel it first. The peel can be tough, so you leave it on if you’re roasting the squash whole or in halves, and then you scoop the soft flesh out, but when the squash is cut into chunks for steaming, usually the peel is removed. This recipe is different, which is why I want to try it. I want to know if it makes a difference, or if this person just wrote this recipe this way because that’s the way he or she had always seen it done.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.