* L I F E S T Y L E * : Why My Mother’s Cooking is the Best

I remember the days when I would take a nap after school and wake up to the smell of my mother’s cooking. I’d sneak into the kitchen, hidden behind a cabinet until she dipped out for a bathroom break. Then, I’d swoop in like a ninja to take a bite of the marinated pork cubes, incidentally running into my father at the pot, who beat me there for the same reason (lips already covered in sauce). We quietly put a finger to our lips, chuckled under our breaths and subtly exited the premises. My mother always saw the missing food, plus she could probably hear the pattering steps racing up and down the stairs from the toilet and smell her cooking from our breaths.

In college, whenever I think of home, my mother’s cooking would be the first to come to mind. Whatever I put in a pot, seared in a pan or threw into the microwave wouldn’t compare to the way she made her dinners. She barely used seasoning in her food, she believed that letting the natural flavors come out of her ingredients was the healthiest and tastiest option (I didn’t always agree).

Now that I cook by myself, I relish in the fact that all I had to do before was come down the stairs and sit down quietly at the table. I understand her frustrations when I didn’t go to the dining room immediately when she called for me because in a matter of minutes, the hot plates of food would lose its flavor. Everything was about timing. If I were to count how many dinners my mom has cooked for me since I was in first grade, it would be around 4,400 meals, a third of which I usually had something to complain about because I was a willful child and a picky eater.

This Christmas, get your mother something special for Christmas and thank her for the amount of time she spent in the kitchen to feed you these couple thousands of meals. Hand her a gift card for a spa day and when she gets home, pop open a bottle of wine and serve her a beautiful meal. She won’t mind if the meat is slightly burnt because you left it on the stove too long. She won’t mind if the vegetables are too bland because you weren’t sure how much salt to put in. Mothers want to spend time with their kids. It’s the things that money can’t buy that make the best Christmas presents. When I smell that scent of mother’s cooking, I know it is family time and I am home.

Happy holidays!