Gone…

But not forgotten.

Pat at 6 - the number of years since she died

 I have written other blogs on the theme, but every year on several dates those that I have “loved and lost” come to mind. Some years are harder than others and no matter how often I repeat “they are not entirely gone as long as someone remembers that they once lived and were loved” there are moments when that remains simply what it is: a trite phrase.

Today is one such and if I still feel that I was honored and privileged to be there when my little sister took her last breath, I still wish that she were here.

It was a different day, neither totally sad, nor totally normal.

I wandered around doing errands – and found myself eating (of all things) a burrito in her honor and remembering how good the ones were locally in her old town.

Pat – you are no longer physically here – yet you are always present in our hearts. RIP

Thirty years…

several countries and more stores than I can count.

I have finally found replacements for my favorite pans for raclette: that

Swiss cheese specialty that was a standard all one summer in our German/American

Home.

In the beginning we did it the classical route: individual pans fitting a square of cheese,

Potatoes, pickles and onions. Then I had to turn it into an international version, ie potatoes still, cheese as well, but accompanied with raw onions (grilled under cheese – a wonderful feast), hot dogs as well as pickles, onions and ketchup.

The summer that we hosted all of my husband’s nephews together with my brother and his six lots of travellers we got to producing it on an almost industrial scale as this is a meal that can be prepared before and enjoyed whenever the guests show up!

Over the years I discovered that – most of our guests were young males – the little pans just didn’t cut it when it came to quantities and when the now defunct Uniprix turned up with round, flat Teflon-coated small frying pans we dumped the small square ones.

I always had two and just before Uniprix shut I was able to buy one last one. This is some 30 plus years ago and of the two one is almost unusable as the coating is scratched and things stick again.  First a neighbor gave me their surplus of little pans, but I hated to have to go back to that method so imagine my delight when a trip up to a larger French grocery store turned up similar round pans.  OK they are meant for individual eggs – sunny side up – but who cares after 30 years I finally have my raclette pans again.

Almost the season again - although our family has also eaten it out of season.

Finally new pans