23 November 2011 Sam’s Contribution to Thanksgiving

Before she fell ill a second time, Sam asked me if she could make something for Thanksgiving. I said sure and asked her for suggestions. She came up with carrot soup and so we searched for a simple recipe.

The recipe she chose had only five ingredients: carrot, onion, can of tomatoes, olive oil and soy sauce. (Sam was really excited about the soy sauce. The girl loves anything to do with sushi). She seemed well enough today to make the soup, so I set her loose with the vegetable peeler, paring knife and a bunch of carrots. She helped in every step of the recipe, except for the hand-held-blending part, which is a bit splattery even for me. (I fear we have an orange-speckled ceiling now). The last thing to add was the soy sauce, which the recipe assured us would cut the sweetness of the carrot in a delightfully surprising way.

Well, the surprising part was right. How shall I say this? It’s not a brilliant soup.

Sam and I tasted it at the same time. She put her spoon down, pursed her lips and said, “It’s all right.”

“You don’t like it.” I said. That was not a question. I didn’t really like it.

“Not really,” she said. “But I’ll eat a little of it tomorrow.”

Poor little trouper. Her first soup is a soy-sauce bomb. But we’ll serve it–in very small, amuse-bouche doses–tomorrow anyway. It’s her contribution. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere about failure being a great teacher, but I didn’t ram that down her throat. Believe me, the soup was enough.

Later in the afternoon Sam seemed poorly again and I nearly took her to the doctor because it seemed to me that by now she should be getting better not worse, but the on-call advice nurse assured me that there’s something nasty going around and that it will just take time. I should let Sam rest. So she’s off the hook for helping me with the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I’m sure she’s thankful for that!

I’m thankful for our (mostly) good health. I’m thankful for food on our table, even the unpalatable carrot soup. And I’m especially thankful for my friends and family.

Happy Thanksgiving!