Are you good at giving gifts? If so, you have a true gift. I freely admit, I suck at gift giving. Dunno why, but I can't seem to nail that perfect "I know you like a book" gift. So I cheat. With gift cards. If I marginally know your habits, suffice to say you will get a gift card to Barnes & Noble, Abercrombie & Fitch, or Whatevah & Whatevah. I pride myself on being creative in almost every endeavor - except gift giving. This is sometimes difficult because some people JUDGE you on your gift giving. Because that's how they feel LOVED.
Author Gary Chapman in his book The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate believes everyone has a love tank, and that tank is filled by different love languages. These five languages are Gifts, Words of Affirmation, Quality of Time, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch.
The cool thing about this theory of love is that you can apply it it to all your relationships, friends, kids, etc. For example, my daughter's love language is physical touch - Eva would like a hug on the hour, please. It took me about five seconds to figure out my own "Love Language." Give me Acts of Service every time baby.
I'm a single mother which means I work full-time, pay the bills, clean a house, take out the garbage, do the groceries, help with homework, orthodontist, dentist, pediatrician, school paperwork, teacher conference, Jiffy Lube, Register Everything, Turbo Tax, Advise on Friends, give birth to Christmas, and most exhausting of all COOK DINNER EVERY NIGHT. I'm sure I left out 38 things but the wonderful side effect of doing everything as a single parent is you also lose your memory.
So when someone offers to help me with anything, I pretty much have hearts coming out of my eyes like in the old cartoons. (think Tom & Jerry)
Lucky for me, I have a friend who has totally nailed my Love Language, and who is also by the way, an amazing gift giver.
CAROLINE. (And believe me, she deserves all caps.)
The first week of January was a bugger, having just given birth to another Christmas, and now I had a killer week in sales expected of me. I was weak and bloated. I was bitchy. I had cooked myself into a proclamation of NEVER WANT TO COOK AGAIN.
And then CAROLINE called.and said "Can you please check to see if you have a box at your door?" (She has such a sweet voice, please hear that last quote in like, an angel voice :) " Because I sent you an early birthday gift."
"Oh!," I replied in surprise. "It's not the last season of Downton Abbey dvd is it? Because I already ordered that for myself," (See? I wasn't lying about the bitchy part).
"No," said the Angel. Just then a knock at the door and there was a delivery guy walking away and a box lying in front of me. It looked like this:
This box deserves its own blog post and I promise I will write it soon, but suffice to say this is a food revolution in a box. For a reasonable fee, you can order weekly recipes and the company sends them along with all the ingredients to make them in this refrigerated box. My Angel had sent me three beautiful meals that required no shopping and no measuring. My daughter and I oohed and aahed as we took out the contents for three recipes: Juicy Lucy Burgers, Chicken & Udon Noodle Soup, and Seared Cod & Date Vinaigrette. It was an amazing treasure trove with all the ingredients individually packaged.
Cutest of all is a little brown bag for each recipe, called the Knick Knacks bag which contains the teeny tiny portions:
This is just good fun for people who like to cook but who do not want to hunt around a busy grocery store for things like dried lime and 2 tablespoons of demi-glace! I was excited and we decided on the Udon Soup for our first meal.
It was easy and fun to follow the beautiful color recipe card, and I must say it turned out pretty and delicious!
The Juicy Lucy Burgers were a bit more ambitious (in fact I've never spent that much time making burgers in my life) but the results were crazy good, probably because the recipe calls for "frizzled onions." I converted this recipe into a salad for myself, and a yummy burger for my daughter.
The above is my daughter eating a burger for the first time in a decade - and loving it ! So I cannot say enough about this beautiful gift and importantly the timing of it. My body and soul needed something and this was it.
This makes me recall one of Laurie Colwin's memoirs (you will find me quoting her often as she is/was one of my favorite food writers) in her book "Home Cooking":
"Once upon a time when I was in mourning for my father I was taken home by my best friend who sat me in a chair, gave me a copy of Vogue and told me not to move until called. I sat like a good girl while she busied herself in the kitchen. When I got to the table I realized that this angelic pal had made shepherd's pie. My eyes swam with tears of gratitude. I did not know that shepherd's pie was just what I wanted, but it was just what I wanted."
Similarly, I didn't know last week that a Blue Apron box with Udon Soup was just what I wanted, but a big shout out to my pal Caroline - udon good!!!
Happy eating & thanks for reading !
Happy eating & thanks for reading !
Lisa Leary Gertz
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