I was having a lovely mid-afternoon Spanish-style lunch yesterday afternoon with a wonderful Spanish-Japanese family we know, when my grandfather "entered" the conversation.
In between the olive oil-drenched tomatoes, green olives, sauted clams, prociutto & cream pasta and grilled prawns (did I mention the chilled white Spanish wine?), the conversation turned to finding a "foothold" in the world. One of the lunch guests, now stationed in Japan for the U.S. Navy, remarked that after his tour was finished his plan was to enroll in a culinary school. And that's when beloved Grampa sprang to mind. I told my hosts and other attendees, that my grandfather used to always say, "Everyone's gotta' eat and everyone needs to have a ditch dug, so you might as well learn to cook". I am paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea. He would always imply, when given the opportunity, that the 1 constant in this world is the fact that everyone has to eat, and it sure as hell beats digging ditches! He and his wife, my grandmother, were die-hard, Vermont bakers for 50+ years.
Here's to your morning doughnut Grampa and Grammy Cote.
