Relish Cooking

      Another Coto July has arrived in a fiery fury and it just came so darn fast…way too fast for me this year in particular, but I urge you this year as it sets each night, savor the sun.

      In (several) past Relish Cooking articles, I’ve expressed that summer is not my fave, but despite implication, I promise not to ink another word of disdain for the sharp, beating rays of that burning inferno-ball of fire that is technically 6 billion miles away, yet makes its home right in my backyard fire season after fire season. No more loathing banter of those long hot days that feel like months, where its heat is inescapable in all but a walk-in fridge. Don’t expect another cook’s rambling of how all things fresh quickly become rotting compost and somehow the solar giant even zaps the energy from our bodies leaving no amount of AC, SPF or ATM capable of eluding its wrinkling effects. Yes, it is expensive, intrusive and ages you far before you deserve - but this summer, I will be singing, not cursing, ”You are my Sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey…”

      You see, summer DID come too fast for me, but not because of the arrival of one blazing blood-sucking orb. Its actually the departure of one very petit little fireball that has changed my tune this year…its the exodus of my only daughter, my little sunshine, to make her mark in this world in just one short week.

      Oddly, I find absolutely no correlation between the larger and the latter objets du soleil. True, they are both sparkling stars in the universe shining brightly for all to see, but other than that, the expensive-aging thing is just a metaphor of my intolerance at this point in life, right? Au contraire, my daughter, in her minor imperfections, has also managed to make herself at home in my backyard, and not just during the fire seasons we call summer. There may have been one or two Coppertone occasions on a Tuesday in March where “going to school that day would have been a total waste of time because they weren’t doing anything all day.” How seven teachers can orchestrate such a lazy day is beyond me, but if that’s what my little girl says…it MUST be so, therefore I say nothing about it, except (carefully) that I need my credit card back. After all, I wouldn’t want her to get upset and accidentally spill that suspicious-looking “iced tea” on her new bathing suit (was that Burberry?!) would I? And besides, she made her famous mouth-watering vanilla caramels, hand-wrapped in tiny pieces of parchment paper…a treat that is well-worth every sticky ounce of clean-up I did later!

      Okay, so there has been the occasional cloud, er…small thunderstorm every now and again, but the rays of light (and those darn caramels) have far outweighed the category four hurricanes over the years. For example, one rare day recently where all 3 kids and I were at Ruby’s for lunch, the moppy-haired 10-year old brother teased the 8-year brother over a game of hangman. On the back of his paper menu, he announced line-by-line “Noah is a mushroomhead” to which I wittily responded, “Austin, with a head of hair like that, you’re not one to Shiitake!” Well, I guess you had to be there, but it may have been the first time my daughter and I belly-laughed so long and hard we had tears in our eyes and it was a moment I will never forget… a moment I will never get back again, so I conclude by finishing the song I have sung hundreds of times as the sun would set…but this time, my sweet sunshine, I mean it more than ever…”you’ll never know dear, how much I love you, so please don’t take my sunshine away.”