Story set in a kitchen

This is unedited and needs more detail

Writers group 10/23/2024

Set a story set in a kitchen.

Thanksgiving morning. Turkey is in the oven. The familiar aroma is starting to seep out and make the house smell like a holiday. For some reason, we always have pretty much the same meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not sure how that started but no one complains. Maybe it started because turkeys are on sale during Thanksgiving so my parents would buy two. I wish I could ask them, but sadly, they have both passed. So many questions I wished I had asked them (side note—this could make a great writing prompt).

Casey is in the yellow room watching the parade. Traditions are important around here at holiday time.

Gene is puttering about. In the kitchen one minute and outside the next minute, doing who knows what. He is the main cook all year round but I do have specialties. I am stirring up one of those specialties right now. I have my favorite heavy, blue pot and my large wooden spoon that has a small crack in the bowl part but I still love it. It’s helped me create so many savory and sweet dishes over the years.

I’m standing at the stove stirring some fresh cranberries into the haphazardly measured sugar and water to make my famous cranberry sauce. If you didn’t know how easy it was to make, you may think that it takes a complicated recipe to make it. That’s why so many people buy the canned cranberry sauce. At least that’s what I used to think. Now I know that some people just prefer the canned jellied sauce that slide out of the can into a dish and makes that slurping sound that only cranberry sauce can make.

I’m stirring away, waiting for the water, sugar and cranberries to come back to a boil. I have the house phone next to me. I turn down the heat on the burner as it comes to a boil and then reach for the phone as it has started to ring. Pretty much on cue. It’s my dad. He and mom live in Florida now and will come up to Vermont for Christmas but they spend Thanksgiving down there.

“Sue, hi, Happy Thanksgiving.” We talk for a few minutes while I continue to constantly stir the berries that a slowly softening and popping and now the aroma in the kitchen is taken over by the luscious smell of cooking cranberries.

And then he says, as he does every single Thanksgivning since they moved down there. “How do you make the cranberry sauce? I forget. How much water, and sugar? Do the cranberries have to be room temp or can I put them in the water straight from the freezer?” Then he continues. I can’t read the recipe on the bag. The writing is too small.”

I know he knows the recipe. And I know he knows I know he knows the recipe. It’s a tradition that started back when mom stopped cooking much and Dad had to take over. That first year he really didn’t know how to make the sauce and the writing on the bag IS small. So I talked it through with him and it came out satisfactory, he claimed. The next year I was kinda surprised when he called me. It truly is an easy recipe. The next year I wasn’t so surprised when he called. And the year after. This went on until 2015 when Mom and Dad had health issues and they both moved into assisted living in Florida.

Each year I stand at the stove with the same pot and spoon, stirring away, thinking about Dad and Mom, and our family and our traditions. The sauce is done now. It’s cooling in the glass dish shaped like a chicken that Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas one year. I’m just realizing now that it’s probably meant for gravy. Why had I never realized that before? But every Thanksgiving and Christmas it holds my special cranberry sauce and sits on the table in a place of honor.

Recipe

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 12 ounce bag of cranberries

Bring water and sugar to a boil in pan. Add cranberries and bring back to a boil and gently boil for 10 minutes. Stirring frequently (although I stir continuously). I also take the back of my wooden spoon and ‘help’ the cranberries pop by pressing them against the side of the pan. I love the popping sound!

And always, always lick the spoon and the spatula! So good!

My favorite pot and wooden spoon

What I learned today

This is our Wii set up. We also use this for TV, streaming services, DVDs and VHS tapes. We can roll it to wherever Casey is hanging out.  

Positioning can be awkward but it works!

Of course he is on his device (T) too. 

From Writers Group 10/08/2024  (unedited)

Writing prompt: What did you learn today?

Today was a just do the basics day. Eat, drink, feed and water Casey, make his food, do ONE load of laundry (leaving it for the nurse and Casey to fold tonight as it’s their thing they like to do when she works the overnight) No cleaning, organizing, making phone calls or writing emails or returning calls or emails.

It was a me and Casey day. Casey and I spend a lot of time together but I also spend part of my time with him doing the things I mentioned already so it’s kind of haphazard time. I’m up and down from the chair or couch and in and out of the room. Always trying to be productive.

But today I decided I would put all that other stuff aside and just have fun with Casey. I gave him a choice of art, Legos or Wii. He chose Wii very excitedly. We went super old school and picked a Wii game vs. a WiiU game (Wii U was a much anticipated upgrade from the regular Wii). He’s been into Halloween so he picked Ispy Haunted House. I was glad he picked something that is relatively simple and easy because some of the games we’ve played over the years a truly really hard—hard to figure out and hard to manipulate.

So from about 10AM until 3 PM we played. We played and played. He still had his device on and was doing his Googling but we also chatted while I physically played the game. I talked out loud and asked his advice and we were happily frustrated at times and also happily happy when we figured something out.

What I learned today is that I needed that. I needed to just have a little fun and be with my kid. No pressure to work on the To Do list. No nagging Gene to do things (well, except for helping me figure out what to have for lunch), no thinking about tomorrow. And guess what, I didn’t even take a nap! Usually I get that napping feeling after lunch and I go for it when I can.

I’m looking around me and seeing Casey’s room is a mess, wii games strewn about, bed unmade, medical equipment needing to be cleaned and put away, mail to go through, etc. But it will be there when Writers Group is done and it will get taken care of before bedtime. Because, I enjoyed the fun down time, but life goes on and routines need to be continued. But I will remember next time I’m feeling a little burnt out or feeling a little tightly wound that having some quality time with Casey and doing something mindless will bring me back to center and I can be a better me.

Desert Island Game

 ***not proofed, or edited or finished!***

My sister-in-law is one of my best friends. We have a lot in common but also we are very different. One thing we have in common is our love of lists/task/things to do, etc. We share ideas on our Notes app and comment back and forth.

Recently, Peggy proposed the Desert Island Game. We were to pick 10 things, sentimental things, that we could bring with us if we were to lived on a deserted island. There was a lot of back and forth about the rules, haha. Like does a group of similar things count as one or do you have to count each item. We finally decided that if the items were in the same category, they would count as one as long as the group of items didn’t exceed 10 items.

These are things that are precious to me for different reasons. Now that I’m looking at them, I see that they are mostly items associated with a family member that has since passed.

Here are mine:

The first item that would go in my desert island bag would be the Swiss Army knives that my dad gave me. Every since I was younger, maybe a teen, he would gift me one of the small, swiss army knives. They had the little scissors, knife, nail file, tweezer and pick. I guess I had been fascinated with Dad’s so he gave in and got me one of my own. Several have been lost over the years. I have the last two that he gave me. One is the traditional red one and one is has a cool blue and white pattern on it. I have one downstairs in my desk and one in the little teak wooden dish (also my dad’s) that I keep on my nightstand which also holds my chapstick. I use the knives for all sorts of things from cutting off tags on new clothing to filing my hang nail and even cutting my nails.

The next items I would bring with me are the 4 ceramic crocks that were in mom’s kitchen going back as far as I can remember. Each summer growing up we would go to Maine for a couple of weeks. We had certain places that we would stop at along the way. One of them was a pottery place. The man and woman were both clay artists and Mom loved their work. Each time we went Mom picked out another crock in the same blue color. Each one was a little bit different but you knew they belonged together. One was somewhat spherical in shape with a teak lid with a knob. One was a size down and was more straight up and down but had the same style lid. The next one down was the similar in shape to the second one but had a flat teak lid. The last one had was narrower towards the top and had a flat lid. They were all done in a very pretty blue. I’ll have to figure out how to describe the color. When I inherited the canisters a couple of years ago I was eager to have them in my kitchen. I cleaned the bodies up really well and cleaned and oiled the tops. Sugar, flour, rice and tea bags were added. Just like my mom had. I also had the metal scoop that she used in the sugar one and the sea shell that she used to scoop out the rice. Weird, I know, but it was what we did!

My next pick was Gulliver and Skipper. They are the epitome of my childhood. When I was in grade school, my dad took a sabbatical and we did some traveling. We went to England, Ireland, a brief visit to Scotland and then we spent two months on St. Thomas in a house of one of his colleagues. When we were in England, I picked out two small ceramic dogs from a gift shop. They are very similar to the ones that used to come in Red Rose tea (maybe they still do that?). But these have more defined and delicate features than the Red Rose ones. Gulliver is a puppy, a mutt, I guess, and he is sitting on his haunches and looking very sweet. Skipper is a retriever of some kind. He is standing up on all fours and he’s standing on a patch of grass. I played with these two for hours and hours. I had many other ceramic animals and plastic ones of all sizes, but Gulliver and Skipper were always the favorites and were always the head of the household. I had two story doll house that my dad and brother built for me that all my animals lived in. Gulliver was always in charge and was the oldest, and Skipper was second in charge. So many fun scenarios were created in this doll house where animals lived!

And then there is my comforter. It’s an alternative down comforter, light blue, twin size, that my mom bought me in my senior year of high school in preparation for college. I still have it and use it nightly. I even use it when it’s hot and muggy out, if just to hug or snuggle. It is kind of lumpy but I wash it and shake it out and try to get the lumps to even out. I actually just threw it in the wash today. These days I use a comforter cover so I can wash that more frequently and try to get the comforter to limp a long a little longer. I have been toying with the idea of asking Santa for a new one for Christmas but I don’t know if this is the year yet or not. What would I do with it if I get a new one? Throwing it in the trash seems inhumane. I know most people would think it’s gross using a 43 year old comforter but I’m very attached to it and it truly is a comforting comforter.