Great Moms…

I read it somewhere…

Great Moms…

Great Moms

Have sticky floors,

Messy kitchens,

Piles of laundry,

Dirty ovens

And most of all…

Happy kids!

My Mom Is Disappointed in Me!

Puffy profiterols ready to be filled with savory cheese filling

My Mom is Disappointed in Me!

by Victoria Arlin

Last Summer something hit me. Something painful. A memory of how my Mom was very disappointed with me.

When I was still living in my parents’ house as a teenager, I was not very interested in cooking. I figured since cooking is my Mom’s passion and since my Mom was overly critical to me, there was no way I could do something good let alone eventually become her equal  in cooking.

In fact, my Mom’s cooking was so wonderful that she also cooked as a professional cook in a restaurant and people paid to enjoy her dishes. My Mom was a real chef!

So I strongly believed I couldn’t do anything good when it comes to cooking.

My disinterest in cooking apparently was a disappointment for my Mom.

One day she bitterly said to me:

“Victoria, you can’t cook at all. All you are capable of doing, is heating up prepared meals.”

She looked at me with contempt and probably felt shame that I am her daughter.

I pretend I didn’t care about what she just said, but a jolt of pain went through me and silently I vowed to myself never ever to consider my activities in the kitchen as ‘cooking’.

A couple of years later I left my parents’ house and did fine taking care of cooking my own meals.

During my time in college, even my roommates enjoyed what I prepared.

By the way, the fact that I earned my college degree and later on my Master of Science degree, was not enough to make my Mom express her being proud of me, but that is a different story.

Later on I got a good job, got married and my hubby never complaint about my concoctions in the kitchen.

But still I didn’t dare to call this real cooking. Such pretense, right.

Then after years of “just messing around with cooking” this Summer it hit me.

Hey I can cook, why not? I am a wonderful cook too!

I produce the most tasteful , wonderful  and fulfilling meals for my family.

For Christmas, the whole family comes to my dinner table and enjoy an eight course dinner European style.

I am very good at giving extensive dinner parties to entertain my friends too.

I also cook beyond my cultural cuisine and cook French, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Korean, South American, English, Italian and Middle Eastern, vegetarian, macrobiotic dishes as well.

So yes, I can cook!!!!

My 2013 Summer Fruit Pie: French Crust, soft Cake and Figs

And this Summer and Fall I took up many things to cook, all homemade: pasta, pizza, bread using my bread machine, many different cakes and pastries, special sauces, salads, smoothies and soups.

It was all wonderful.

In retrospect I didn’t do all this cooking catch up my skills and experience to prove my Mom a point.

I did all this cooking because I realized I allowed my Moms judgment to rob myself from good fun, creativity and satisfaction cooking can give me.

What an insight this was for me!

Now I finally feel totally free to give myself this great fun and also finally share in my Moms passion: great cooking!

Victoria Arlin.

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