{"id":4359,"date":"2018-05-25T14:51:39","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T18:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/?p=4359"},"modified":"2018-06-05T11:08:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T15:08:52","slug":"missing-ammama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/?p=4359","title":{"rendered":"Missing Ammama…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_9468\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My mom was well known for her talented cooking skills.\u00a0 She did not use recipes or measurements and could make anything taste great.\u00a0 We grew up loving spinach, okra, fish, Brussels sprouts, liver (I never knew it was liver)… and the list goes on.\u00a0 We loved eating.\u00a0 We were never the kind that ate to live but simply enjoyed eating.<\/p>\n

My mom lived with us for 5ish years from the time Sammy was a couple of months.\u00a0 She was a very very very fussy eater.\u00a0 If you knew her and tried to feed her or watched her eat anything but her own cooking, you know this.\u00a0 She was not trying to be rude but she just truly preferred what she made over anything.<\/p>\n

My boys loved my mom’s food.\u00a0 Every time Ammama came, they each rattled off their desired meals.\u00a0 My\u00a0 mom always accommodated.\u00a0\u00a0 They loved her cooking so much that there was never left overs.\u00a0 That is the case now, with thing any one makes but when they were younger this would happen.\u00a0 Here’s the thing, Indian food, most of it requires prep and sometimes consuming prep.\u00a0 I would peel the potatoes, but she always wanted to cut potatoes herself, her way.\u00a0 I was never sure whether to be offended as I was in my 40s, a grown up that cooked too!\u00a0 She was the same with onions or various vegetables. She was very conscious of how her food looked as much as how it tasted.<\/p>\n

My boys were very connected to their Ammama and loved her very much.\u00a0 Her suffering and death were and continue to be\u00a0 very hard on them.\u00a0 One of the boys looked so sad the other day and when I asked what was wrong, he told me he was missing Ammama. We tried out a new Indian restaurant that serves dosa\u00a0 (an Indian type crepe with fermented batter).\u00a0 Dosa was something my mom made that we could not eat enough of.\u00a0 One batch she easier stood there made at least 30+.\u00a0 She would just keep making them till the boys said they were full because they felt bad for eating so much. While at the restaurant, the boys were talking about how Ammama’s dosa was better.\u00a0 Or how they preferred Ammama’s tomato chutney to the coconut one that is typical with this dish. There was Ammama’s fish curry that she put green mango in so it gave a sour bit it, or her\u00a0 lamb and gongara\u00a0 and the list continues.<\/p>\n

Yes, my mom did teach me to cook.\u00a0 I feel pretty awesome when my boys tell me it’s like Ammama’s or almost as good and yet a piece of me knows that my mom’s cooking was top notch.\u00a0 There’s a part of me that wants my boys to remember Ammama’s cooking as the best and continue to hold that memory close to their hearts, as with time the taste will be forgotten yet the memory will be in their hearts.<\/p>\n

We have such a crazy memory of my mom in the kitchen.\u00a0 If you cook Indian food, you know that as you cook, splatting is a nightmare on your clothes.\u00a0 The stains that can come with the curry, oil, turmeric, etc can do a number on your clothing. My mom knew this and usually put an old top on.\u00a0 I am not sure what she was cooking but if I was to guess, she was likely frying fish for curry (I know, I did say her cooking was delicious but certainly not low fat)!\u00a0 Again, I am not sure of the reason, I just brushed it off as my mom being eccentric… she had out a black garbage bag over her, poked holes for her arms and was cooking away.\u00a0 Sanj came home, saw this and was appalled!\u00a0 He looked at my mom and told her how unsafe that was.\u00a0 A bit of grease or what not and the bag would melt on her or worse she would get burned or a fire would could spark… who knew!\u00a0 This is a memory that often makes us laugh and my mom always looked sheepish when it was retold.<\/p>\n

I am not sure if my brothers and I every really thought of the work my mom put into the meals we took for granted.\u00a0 She worked full time and then some and yet we always had a decent meal.\u00a0 As I make meals, simple meals, tired and often grumpy doing so, I often think of my mom and the strength this took.\u00a0 I guess God really does give us what we need and He knew what she needed.<\/p>\n

I love how my mom is smiling and cooking.\u00a0 This picture is of my mom in her element…her love language shouting out to us that were lucky enough to be loved by her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mom was well known for her talented cooking skills.\u00a0 She did not use recipes or measurements and could make anything taste great.\u00a0 We grew up loving spinach, okra, fish, Brussels sprouts, liver (I never knew it was liver)… and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,189,28,6,262,1,32,13,140,15,5,11,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4359"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4428,"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4359\/revisions\/4428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livinglovingbreathingboys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}