Do you wake up on the first of the month and say "rabbit, rabbit" It is supposed to be lucky and sometimes when I wake up groggy from sleep, IF I remember the date, I murmur the phrase.
I am thinking about an incident in cooking class in Junior High (What they now call Middle School) the woman who taught it was a newly divorced woman who was thrust back into the work force by the circumstances. She was ill-prepared for the task and while I STILL use her cranberry muffin recipe every Thanksgiving, I am forever scarred by the Bacon Burning Incident.
WHO I ask you places high fat- cheap- bacon under a broiler? "Bacon From the Broiler" read the cheery heading at the top of the mimeographed page we were all given. Do you know what actually has a great chance of happening when said high fat meat meets a very high flame? That's right, it catches fire. Upon hearing that our broiler had become a sacrifice, the poor woman ran in circles around the room. One of my friends, who was more adept in such things found some flour and put it out. The teacher castigated us for the rest of the class. I spent the rest of the day hearing about it in other classes from people who made fun of me and my kitchen mates. It was NOT a fun day.
I went home and spoke with my father, a professional cook who told me point blank that "every cook burns something, it's how you react that is important" I remarked that the teacher did not react well to the problem, and we laughed. I remained her least favorite student for the remainder of the semester.
The fact that I enjoy cooking and am fairly good at it lies not in the disaster that was cooking 7A, but the wise words of my father, which can be applied to any life situation, if you think about it. Anyone can screw something up. It's how you react that matters.
