Shepherd's Pie is one of those dishes I love, but usually reserve for the occasional meal at a restaurant or for when I visit with my dad and stepmother, who live overseas. Whenever we visit, here or there, we meal plan with them, and they graciously cook for us. The pie is one of our 'requests,' one of those comforting recipes that needs my dad's (or stepmother Lindsay's) magic touch. This along with mac & cheese with sausage, banana bread, and homemade pizza among many others.
Shortly after my father had moved overseas, he gave my brothers and I a cookbook he had made of all the recipes he had made for us growing up. It has a picture of him on the front and is titled Dad's Comfort Food Recipes. My favorite is the chicken soup. The book includes some 'keys' to cooking as well, including a nugget of wisdom connected to the spaghetti recipe that some recipes are labor intensive, but more satisfying in the end. The Shepherd Pie fell into that intensive category, but was so worth it!
In my last post I wrote about how tired I was over a recent spate of intense racial moments during the week. I was going to take the weekend off, wall myself away from it all, but it didn't quite work that way. Insensitive and racist remarks about Jeremy Lin, as well as racist images connected to a campaign in our state to isolate the disenfranchised with voter id requirements, made the news and I chose not to change the channel, chose not to look away.
There is no break from the onslaught of ignorance and bigotry and hate in the world. I've taken my head out of the sand of white privilege and it is intense. But I learn so much by staring it down, writing the letters, reporting the nonsense, and even just sharing the story. It is work. There is a process. There are messes to clean up, some of which I make myself. Sometimes it doesn't turn out the way I thought, hoped, prayed. But I have the comfort of my family, near and far, and the lessons I've learned that I wish to instill in my boys.
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