Stewing My Thoughts

On this rainy day, I remembered my lovely friend Leslie had given me a beef stew recipe that I thought I'd give a go. I am not a cook; a baker yes. Many a berry pie or chocolate creation has come forth from my kitchen, but nary a casserole nor five course meal to follow. I believe it stems from asking my mom to help in the kitchen as a young girl and always getting the job of peeling the potatos or carrots. The worst part was the thin 40 year old peeler, duller than a butter knife, and never sure if it worked better peeling upwards or down. I now have my super peeler that I could shave chest hair with if I wanted to, but that's another stroy.

So, while peeling potatos for my stew today I got the outsides white and ready to cut, and then cut into one. Inside was a brown rotten streak going right through its middle. We're going deep here for a minute, so prepare yourselves. How many of us look all gussied up and prepared on the outside but when we open up, we have an ugly spot of hurt, unforgiveness, broken hearts etc. on the inside?

On to the onion, every cooks own crying game. I am an old school, just hand cut that onion up and get it over with kind of gal. I was thinking how the onion could represent our hearts. First we have to peel the yucky outer layers off. That is kind of like pulling off the bandaid. It hurts for a minute, is only a flesh wound and the pain will stop in two seconds. But then..... cutting into that bad boy and opening it up brings on a whole different level of pain. Tears are dripping down your face, profuse blinking takes place, chopping as fast as you can to finish what was started and finally into the pot it goes. What will come out after? A beautiful, insides warming, yummy smelling, get me through a cold day kind of happiness that only occurs after the hard part is dealt with. It's not fun to reflect on the vegetables of our lives.... but join me and let's get some stew stewing!