My daughter Lindsay recently loaded up a U-Haul and left for her sophomore year at UT Knoxville. After having enough of life in the dorm last year, she and two friends have rented a condo. The day before she packed the truck, she reminded me that since she’ll be living on her own with a real kitchen, I needed to compile a cookbook with our favorite family recipes. I told her it would take some time to gather/copy everything. She commented that she could probably make the bow tie pasta recipe, saying…“I mean you just sauté some spinach then throw in some tomatoes and Alfredo sauce and put it on the pasta, right?” 

Since I’m a Virgo and therefore a follow-the-recipe-exactly-by-the-book type of cook, I was practically horrified by her suggestion that you would just randomly throw some stuff in the pan. But, then I realized she is simply a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of cook. Where I carefully measure ingredients precisely to a tee and level off a cup of flour with a knife (just as I was taught in Home-Economics back in 1975), she throws in a handful and says “Yep…that looks about right!” And where I carefully cut slices from a loaf of toasted French bread with my Pampered Chef bread knife, she rips off a piece with her bare hands and scoops it through the butter.  And where I fret when I’m out dried oregano, she’ll shrug her shoulders and throw in a pinch or basil or rosemary instead. And where I set the table with nice plates and cloth napkins, she’s happy to eat her messy sandwich over the sink, licking mustard off her chin and wiping her mouth on the dish towel.

I guess one wouldn’t expect to have a lot in common with a 19-year old, but it is interesting to note that I'm the #1 facebook friend for both my daughters! Even though in some ways we are very different people, there are many things we share a love of as well:

Fresh picked, juicy peaches
Blackberries on our pancakes
The smell of honeysuckle in bloom
Rain on a tin roof
Waterfalls
The sun on our faces
Burt’s Bees anything
Tent camping
Driving over water
Silence
Soft, comfy sheets
Biting into a home-grown tomato (and eating it like an apple)
70’s music
The sound of the ocean
The smell of babies

I’m sure there are many more things that have slipped my mind as I’m writing this. I know we will continue to add more things to the list as time goes on. If you have a favorite thing in common with a loved one, send it to me in an email and I’ll post it online (anonymously)!