COL: Cooking Up Memories
I’ve always said the Army did me a big favor. It made my late husband, Carl, appreciate my cooking. Had we married before he experienced mess hall food, it might have been a different story.
However, I was fairly good at baking so as my first gourmet delight I sent heart-shaped cookies to my sweetheart while he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He loved them and raved about my “autographed cookies” as he described them since I put our names on them.
Later, as a young newlywed, I put my skills to the test with a soufflé. I had never made one but it sounded interesting. Everything went as planned until the end of baking time. The recipe said to “test” it but didn’t say how. Having made cakes all of my life, I took a toothpick and poked it into the soufflé. Stunned, I watched that beautiful creation sink to a bit of nothing. Determined not to let it be a complete disaster, I scooped out the middle and mixed it with Cool Whip and put it in pretty parfait glasses. Carl never knew this wasn’t the dessert I planned.
But I have to wonder what he would have said about the cranberry bread I recently baked. It was one of his favorites. After a long afternoon of baking, I had six loaves of cranberry bread cooling on my kitchen counter. But they didn’t look right so I tasted it. I left out the sugar!
What do you do with six loaves of bland cranberry bread? You store them in the freezer until you can figure it out and start all over. The next batch was good and my sweet hubby would have been pleased.
In case it isn’t obvious from my walk down memory lane, I’m thinking about Carl a lot these days. March would have brought our 51st wedding anniversary and I miss him. But I still say the Army did us a favor, and it wasn’t just about cooking.
Our year-and-half separation while Carl was overseas taught us to never take our time together for granted. Thankfully, God gave us 45 years of love, marriage and celebrations.
I Am Blessed!
About the Author
Louise Tucker Jones is an award-winning author, inspirational speaker & founder of Wives With Heavenly Husbands, a support group for widows.
LouiseTJ@cox.net or LouiseTuckerJones.com.
