If you’ve read my book, Starved to Obesity, you know my mom excelled in the culinary arts. In fact, she was over-the-top exceptional. She made everything from scratch; including potato salad, every dessert imaginable, pie crusts, Christmas candies, and even homemade noodles. . .just to name a few.
In addition, throughout my parents’ nearly seventy years of marriage, she and my dad preserved thousands of quarts of fruit and vegetables from their gardens and orchards.
One of my earliest memories was learning to snap green beans in this dishpan. Half of the pan was filled with freshly picked beans, and the other half remained empty. Each one had to have the stems removed and snapped in two. The discarded stems were then tossed into the empty portion of the pan while the newly-snapped beans were tossed into another pan for cooking or canning.
I loved snapping beans with my mom under the shade of a big oak tree. . .and feeling the cool morning breezes that lingered there.
After she passed away, I didn’t want her recipe box, silverware, or china. The only item I wanted was this old and slightly dented dishpan—the primary cooking utensil in her kitchen.
And I use it almost daily. . . just like she did.
I toss a variety of salads in it. (my easy salad tips)
I mix ingredients for high-protein quinoa bars. (recipe)
I use it to collect vegetables from the garden.
It’s become my most important kitchen utensil too.
(And you can still buy these metal dishpans today!)
Kale Salad: shredded kale, carrots, red onions, red peppers, garbanzo beans, and dressed with lemons and avocados
Tossed Salad: shredded collards, red cabbage, beets, radishes, and red onions before adding dressing
High-Protein Quinoa Bars: the dry ingredients
High-Protein Quinoa Bars: adding fruit paste
Same recipe as above, except I used black beans instead of garbanzo beans in the fruit paste mixture.
picking vegetables
getting ready to wash freshly cut greens
Prepping food is enjoyable if you have the right utensils. No wonder my mom loved to cook.
Here’s to your good health!
Emily Boller, wife, mother, artist, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture.
In her free time, she loves to chase sunrises, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.