Anomaly Recipes

Recipes

Has anyone seen my favorite lasagna recipe?! Fifteen years ago I had it stored conveniently on my home computer. I even remember the piece of paper that my coworker Louise wrote it on, but I haven't seen that piece of paper or computer file (or Louise) in years. It was her grandmother's recipe, and people used to get the most dreamy look on their face when I said I was going to make it. To this day, my husband refuses to try any other lasagna until I find that recipe.

Fast forward to 2002, when I was teaching ESL with a wonderful family who was here temporarily from Norway. Since I don't normally work with children, I was trying to think of a way to connect with them. Cooking, I thought. Kids like s'mores, right? When I pitched to them the idea of making s'mores, they said they didn't have anything like that in Norway. Can you imagine?!

The next week, I brought over skewers, marshmallows, and graham crackers, and they supplied the Norwegian chocolate. (If you've never had Norwegian chocolate, believe me, it's worth the trouble to track it down.) Anyways, we made s'mores over the burners in their kitchen stove, and they were a hit! We're taking this to Norway, they said.

It was so successful that we went on to make other things they didn't eat in Norway — cornbread and Rice Krispies Treats, and even gumbo after they made a trip to New Orleans. (We also tried instant grits, but that didn't go over so well.)

Back to the lasagna. Wouldn't it be nice if I put my favorite recipes online, I finally realized. ESL teachers and students could retrieve them from wherever. If friends asked me for a recipe, I could just point them here. More important, the recipes wouldn't be lost forever somewhere in my house.

When I look back over my life, I don't know that I've made many contributions to humanity. But if I was personally responsible for introducing s'mores to Norway, now that's gotta count for something at the pearly gates :-)