The Gift of Inspiration
My grandmother, “Nana” had an April birthday so this month’s blog entry is in honor of her. Did you have someone in your life as a child or youngster who fostered your devotion to a particular interest, skill or hobby? For me that person was my Nana, my maternal grandmother. By the time I was born she was living beside my parents in a multi-family home. So I had the pleasure of her companionship every day. She was born in Eastport, Maine in 1898, one of seven children, five girls and two boys, a poor, hard scabble family. She learned to cook from her mother, on a woodstove in their drafty kitchen, fetching wood from the woodpile and water from the well. She inspired me to love cooking because she did it so well and she was a great storyteller. For every recipe she had a fascinating story, like getting stung by bees while gathering blueberries for a pie when she was little. My earliest memory of her showing me how to ...