Green Beans, Cusa, and Such...

day 188...

no it is not just about food, this is about how food has affected me over the years (no i am not talking about "you are what you eat")...it over the years it  brought my family together...being from a strong ethnic background, especially my mom's side of the family; which is lebanese...major happenings occur in the kitchen, many events evolve around the aspect of food...

we come together to celebrate, to mourn, to laugh, to cry, to be with each other & i can guarantee you; that there will not just be food, but some of THEE MOST AMAZING FOOD your mouth has ever indulged in...it makes me smile to think of how many conversations i have has over my short little lifetime where food was involved...

as i am writing tonight, i was just blessed with a conversation that involved my aunt & my mom & our kitchen table...how priceless was that moment where they were telling me stories of their youth...remembering my siti, my giddo, my uncle mike & so many others that i was not fortunate enough to meet, but through them & this moment i have a connection...i know that my grandparents had many friends, that my uncle was a great man, that they all loved life & loved to entertain & feed people...we have those moments that allow us, even for a very brief second, to understand where we come from & how we arrived to this moment to where i am sitting with two amazing women, who i hope to one day will share the same memories with my children at a kitchen table, eating labne & pita of course...

so whether it is coring cusa, picking green beans or parsley, pinching cookies, rolling grape leaves, cutting baklawa, & then tasting each one of these only to add more nuts, more all spice, more lemon, more salt, and eventually leading to one of the greatest meals in the world...

the secret behind each one of these recipes lies in each one of the people that help create it, and eat it...it lies with those in the past, present, and the future...it lies in the stories we may only hear once, or those we can sight verbatim...

they are the recipes that enable us to become who we are today...

a blessing disguised as food that leads us to cherish a memory forever...

SAHTAIN...

<3 AF