A Recipe for Soul Work:
He grew up under my feet right here in this exact spot in this kitchen. Now he stands taller than me and today it’s his creative space.
I am the spectator.
He found the recipe online and texted it to me after school. I texted back that it sounded like a solid one but it was pretty ambitious. He insists he wanted to do it and goes immediately to the grocery store.
He calls me three times from there with questions: Red cabbage or green? Where do you find water chestnuts? Should I pay more for ground pork or just get ground beef?
I answer each phone call and question honestly. I know every aisle in that store.
He’s hurting. A fresh loss last week is still lingering and so in a way we wander the aisles of the grocery store and the unknown together. Searching for a way to work it out.
He makes the dough for the potstickers from flour and water and salt and he lets all that sit in the big red bowl. Next he rolls the dough out on a wooden board and cuts each piece carefully, then flattens them with my grandma’s rolling pin.
He mixes the filling from fresh vegetables and meat, using his hands to knead it all together.
I stand next to him and smile. I clean pans as he goes. We listen to music.
It’s a kitchen dance and tonight he is leading.
I love that he is learning the beauty of creating something from a bunch of random ingredients and the power of all this to nourish so much more than our bodies.
We sit down eventually and decide together we’ll keep this recipe even though we’ve been two hours in the kitchen. I know for certain that tonight is more than me and him sitting here eating homemade pot stickers. It’s soul work.
Here’s the recipe we used. It’s delicious. And time-consuming. And worth it.
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