How Volunteering Might Save My Holiday Cooking
I love holiday cooking. More accurately, I love when someone else does this kind of cooking and serves it to me. Before I had children, I liked to think that I was something of a good cook. But in my current circle of mom-friends, do you know who makes the best dish? Not me. I hope that’s about to change!
I’m not certain if motherhood zapped my cooking skills, or if the strategically placed pre-made meals at the entrance of nearly all local grocery stores did. If I don’t bring a list (a mortal sin of shopping), I’m drawn to those plastic-packaged salads with colorful labels and tall cylinders of pre-fab soups. Why roam the aisles when the decision is made for my tired brain, right here next to boxed gingerbread houses and bags of cinnamon-scented pinecones?
I’m hopeful my cooking skills will be saved by a little fresh air. My son is a third grader at Top of the World Elementary School and I am one of his class’s garden parent volunteers. I have a small garden at home, but I lack the essential “green thumb.”
The school’s garden is actually a series of gardens, absorbing the sunniest sun that the sun has to shine. They’re brimming with fruit trees and the gorgeous vines of a “living wall.” There are all manners of citrus and the yummiest persimmons. I volunteer in the outdoor classroom (the largest of the gardens) while getting an education of my own.
Prior to volunteering, the only use I knew of for persimmons was as a place card holder on a woodland-themed holiday table (Martha Stewart’s table that is. Not mine). I now know that a persimmon is softer than an apple, sweet, and extremely edible. Chopped, it brings color and life to the most boring salad. Make sure it’s ripe and also a fuyu persimmon. An unripe one is the consistency of a sour cotton ball.
Last month, the outdoor classroom hosted Maro Wood Grill chef Debra Sims for a fabulous al fresco cooking lesson for parents and teachers. She demonstrated how to make a divine pomegranate vinaigrette, herbed butter, and a salad that steals the show. It was so simple and delicious that I went directly to the grocery store, bypassed the pre-concocted pasta, and got started on what would be one of the better dinners I’ve made in years. It was genuinely refreshing!
Now I’m not claiming to be the queen the kitchen, but I’m back on the right track. It’s remarkable what a little learning can do for things we love, or used to love and suddenly love again.
As for this holiday, will my feast be worthy of the season’s many holy meanings and cultural standards of fanciness? Maybe. But if not, my family will go to Maro Wood Grill and be just as merry.
Victoria Kertz writes under a pseudonym for a variety of online literary sites. She is currently cooking with ingredients that need to be washed before consuming.
