Fran
Abrams
Mouth Watering Meals
By Fran Abrams
I started writing poetry in 2017 at the age of 73 when I realized how much I missed using my words. I had spent 41 years working in positions that required me to write. I knew I didn’t want to go back to what I call business writing, so poetry seemed like a good plan. I have been taking and continue to take classes at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, and elsewhere, to improve my skills.
I enjoy writing from prompts. Sometimes a prompt offered by an instructor gets me started. Sometimes it’s something I have seen happen, and at other times an article from a newspaper will set my imagination off and running. I try to write every day, even if it’s just a few notes to myself on my phone.
Happily, I’ve found that writing poetry brings me a great deal of satisfaction. Sharing it with other people gives me even more pleasure. I know that writing is a solitary occupation, but I enjoy interacting with others around poetry in workshopping and readings. For me, it’s the perfect balance of solitude and involvement with other people. And I love that people I have never met may read my poems in an online or print journal, anthology or poetry collection and derive joy or another emotional response.
Vegetable Soup
I don’t like peas in my vegetable soup, she said
to her mother. Can’t you make soup without peas?
Oh, sweetheart, her mother replied, This soup came
from a can. I don’t have time to make soup
when I need to take you to school, go to work,
shop for groceries, pick you up, do the laundry,
and all the other tasks that keep our home running.
But I don’t like peas, she repeated. Can I help
make soup without peas? Her mother had just read
an article that claimed cooking was a good way to connect
with your child. She answered, Yes, we can try that.
The following Saturday, they made vegetable soup without
peas. The recipe used fresh zucchini, onions, bell peppers,
a can of crushed tomatoes, and boxed vegetable broth. Easy
and it tasted so much better than canned vegetable soup
with peas. Cooking from scratch was not her usual
approach to life, and, she admitted, canned tomatoes
and boxed broth made it feel as if she was being dishonest.
But it tasted so good, she wondered what other parts
of her life might improve with a new recipe.
By Fran Abrams
I started writing poetry in 2017 at the age of 73 when I realized how much I missed using my words. I had spent 41 years working in positions that required me to write. I knew I didn’t want to go back to what I call business writing, so poetry seemed like a good plan. I have been taking and continue to take classes at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, and elsewhere, to improve my skills.
I enjoy writing from prompts. Sometimes a prompt offered by an instructor gets me started. Sometimes it’s something I have seen happen, and at other times an article from a newspaper will set my imagination off and running. I try to write every day, even if it’s just a few notes to myself on my phone.
Happily, I’ve found that writing poetry brings me a great deal of satisfaction. Sharing it with other people gives me even more pleasure. I know that writing is a solitary occupation, but I enjoy interacting with others around poetry in workshopping and readings. For me, it’s the perfect balance of solitude and involvement with other people. And I love that people I have never met may read my poems in an online or print journal, anthology or poetry collection and derive joy or another emotional response.
Vegetable Soup
I don’t like peas in my vegetable soup, she said
to her mother. Can’t you make soup without peas?
Oh, sweetheart, her mother replied, This soup came
from a can. I don’t have time to make soup
when I need to take you to school, go to work,
shop for groceries, pick you up, do the laundry,
and all the other tasks that keep our home running.
But I don’t like peas, she repeated. Can I help
make soup without peas? Her mother had just read
an article that claimed cooking was a good way to connect
with your child. She answered, Yes, we can try that.
The following Saturday, they made vegetable soup without
peas. The recipe used fresh zucchini, onions, bell peppers,
a can of crushed tomatoes, and boxed vegetable broth. Easy
and it tasted so much better than canned vegetable soup
with peas. Cooking from scratch was not her usual
approach to life, and, she admitted, canned tomatoes
and boxed broth made it feel as if she was being dishonest.
But it tasted so good, she wondered what other parts
of her life might improve with a new recipe.
Clam Chowder Conundrum
Hunters equipped with rakes and buckets,
we searched for clams at the Jersey shore.
Quahogs I call them; that’s what they were called
in Rhode Island where I spent my childhood summers.
But I won’t quibble about a name as long as we
have enough of them for chowder tonight.
Already I’m dreaming of a rich cream base,
potatoes, celery—a traditional New England
clam chowder. As I open my cookbook, my husband
looks over my shoulder and, in a querulous tone, says,
“Surely, you don’t intend to drown
these perfectly good clams in cream?”
I have forgotten my husband thinks clam chowder
should have tomatoes and taste like vegetable soup.
It’s called Manhattan clam chowder and I think
it’s an insult to clams. “Uh oh,” I say, “Now
we’re in a quandary. I am not going to spend time
making chowder that one of us won’t eat.
Perhaps I’ll bake the clams instead.”
Hunters equipped with rakes and buckets,
we searched for clams at the Jersey shore.
Quahogs I call them; that’s what they were called
in Rhode Island where I spent my childhood summers.
But I won’t quibble about a name as long as we
have enough of them for chowder tonight.
Already I’m dreaming of a rich cream base,
potatoes, celery—a traditional New England
clam chowder. As I open my cookbook, my husband
looks over my shoulder and, in a querulous tone, says,
“Surely, you don’t intend to drown
these perfectly good clams in cream?”
I have forgotten my husband thinks clam chowder
should have tomatoes and taste like vegetable soup.
It’s called Manhattan clam chowder and I think
it’s an insult to clams. “Uh oh,” I say, “Now
we’re in a quandary. I am not going to spend time
making chowder that one of us won’t eat.
Perhaps I’ll bake the clams instead.”
Would You Eat That?
Bacon wrapped tater tots.
Mushrooms stuffed with chopped mushrooms.
Shrimp and pineapple skewers.
Watermelon and feta cheese bites.
I am certain that appetizers
live in the land of how-strange-
can-we-get. A good thing
because after one bite,
you can discard it in a napkin
and never go near it again
or decide you would rather
eat that than dinner.
One person’s four-star review
is another’s thumbs down. When
I look at a scallop wrapped in bacon,
or bacon and cream cheese in filo dough,
I must ask: Would you eat that?
The answer I often hear is:
I will eat anything that’s held
together with bacon.
A Delicious Nibble
Chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, ginger snaps.
Cookies hold a special place in the lives of people
who love to snack. Oreos®, now available in gluten free,
the humble sugar cookie, sometimes enhanced
by frosting or sprinkles, and special cookies intended
for seasonal celebrations, like snowballs, although
there’s no rule about making them any time of the year.
Linzer tarts, gingerbread, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter
cookies—the list goes on if you’re ready to open
a cookbook devoted exclusively to cookies. Brownies
and lemon bars are not quite cookies, but snack
consumers will certainly count them in. Where
did our obsession with cookies come from? A desire
for a quick taste of something sweet? An easy snack
to eat while doing something else? Just beware of eating
cookies while addressing holiday cards. You may compel
your recipient to find their own cookie jar when the smell
of chocolate or gingerbread wafts from the card.
Bacon wrapped tater tots.
Mushrooms stuffed with chopped mushrooms.
Shrimp and pineapple skewers.
Watermelon and feta cheese bites.
I am certain that appetizers
live in the land of how-strange-
can-we-get. A good thing
because after one bite,
you can discard it in a napkin
and never go near it again
or decide you would rather
eat that than dinner.
One person’s four-star review
is another’s thumbs down. When
I look at a scallop wrapped in bacon,
or bacon and cream cheese in filo dough,
I must ask: Would you eat that?
The answer I often hear is:
I will eat anything that’s held
together with bacon.
A Delicious Nibble
Chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, ginger snaps.
Cookies hold a special place in the lives of people
who love to snack. Oreos®, now available in gluten free,
the humble sugar cookie, sometimes enhanced
by frosting or sprinkles, and special cookies intended
for seasonal celebrations, like snowballs, although
there’s no rule about making them any time of the year.
Linzer tarts, gingerbread, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter
cookies—the list goes on if you’re ready to open
a cookbook devoted exclusively to cookies. Brownies
and lemon bars are not quite cookies, but snack
consumers will certainly count them in. Where
did our obsession with cookies come from? A desire
for a quick taste of something sweet? An easy snack
to eat while doing something else? Just beware of eating
cookies while addressing holiday cards. You may compel
your recipient to find their own cookie jar when the smell
of chocolate or gingerbread wafts from the card.
Food Fight
The best advice I’ve ever received
was given to me when I was raising
my second daughter. “Don’t make food
a weapon. Don’t use it as a negotiating tool.
Food is fuel, not punishment or reward.”
How I wish I had been raised with those rules.
Instead, my husband and I both lived
through times when it was okay for parents
to say “Finish what’s on your plate or you
won’t get dessert. Eat what I serve; there is
nothing else. Do you want to go to bed
without dinner?”
As we raised our second daughter,
we lived through times when
all she would eat was SpaghettiOs®.
I would open a can, heat them up,
watch her enjoy her dinner
and fuel her body, all the while
hoping she would outgrow this phase.
And, of course, without tears or fights,
without negotiations, she did. Then she
married a chef. Recently, she let me know
how happy he was when he found fresh octopus
at the seafood market and prepared it for dinner.
And, yes, she told me, she enjoyed it.
For more on Fran:
https://stortellerpoetryreview.blogspot.com/2023/04/storyteller-of-week.html
The best advice I’ve ever received
was given to me when I was raising
my second daughter. “Don’t make food
a weapon. Don’t use it as a negotiating tool.
Food is fuel, not punishment or reward.”
How I wish I had been raised with those rules.
Instead, my husband and I both lived
through times when it was okay for parents
to say “Finish what’s on your plate or you
won’t get dessert. Eat what I serve; there is
nothing else. Do you want to go to bed
without dinner?”
As we raised our second daughter,
we lived through times when
all she would eat was SpaghettiOs®.
I would open a can, heat them up,
watch her enjoy her dinner
and fuel her body, all the while
hoping she would outgrow this phase.
And, of course, without tears or fights,
without negotiations, she did. Then she
married a chef. Recently, she let me know
how happy he was when he found fresh octopus
at the seafood market and prepared it for dinner.
And, yes, she told me, she enjoyed it.
For more on Fran:
https://stortellerpoetryreview.blogspot.com/2023/04/storyteller-of-week.html
Food poems! Wonderful!
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