Remembering Miriam

I'm remembering Miriam, my mom today. Ten years ago today she died. In some ways it seems like yesterday. In other ways it seems much much longer than 10 years.

I'm writing this as I sit in the National Gallery of Art cafeteria by the waterfall eating chocolate pudding.

Both are important in remembering her.

First, the chocolate pudding. Back in the day my mom would make chocolate pudding for dessert. Now this was not instant pudding but the kind you had to really make and cook on the stove. Once mom was done making it she would put it in the refrigerator to cool down. Now it was important to cover the pudding sot it would not get that hard gross layer on top of it. To prevent this from happening, she would cover the pudding with wax paper (yes wax paper which tells you how long ago it was). The big thing in our house was who would get to lick the pudding off the wax paper once the paper was pulled off the pudding. That's the reason for the chocolate pudding.

Second the National Gallery. This was her favorite of all the museums in Washington. She loved to come here. She loved to have lunch by the waterfall. She really liked the food and it is really very good. She loved the impressionists. And she loved to the Matisse Cutouts that were in the Tower in the East Building. So it seems very fitting to be at the National Gallery.

I made pumpkin cake as my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year. I got the recipe from my mom. I'm not sure who she got it from probably one of the teachers she worked with. She converted the original recipe to work in a 13 x 9 pan. I still have the original paper she wrote it on. Of course being a teacher it is written on note book paper. Along with the recipe are a few pointers on making the cake:

Baking soda is cheap to buy, baking powder isn't. IF you don't have the latter you might be able to borrow a bit from a friend in exchange for a bit of cake.

I can just hear her saying those things.
 My visit to the Gallery and having chocolate pudding helped me remember Miriam, my mom, for all the wonderful and great things she meant to me.

Jack and Miriam at my brother's wedding.