…it was like being given a handful of vibrant colored finger paints and just “having fun”… enjoying the wild abandonment in the process of “creating” something new and different…like children enjoying play and as adults seizing the joy of the evening…

Low slanting sun-rays…our Sunday night was mellow, cool and calm…as those beginning days of autumn often are…

As most women from my generation were taught…Cooking is love made visible…and that night was the perfect time to remind Mr. P that he was at the top of my “love list”…

As background…I abhor…detest..have a strong aversion…to the beautiful red vegetable…called the beet…I have tried…numerous times (they say you can develop a taste for things)…but even the smell gags me (a little)…but in love I overrode the feeling…found several recipes and went to the kitchen…and started shredding and chopping to make the requested Borscht for Mr. P…

“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” ~W.C. Fields

and then the fun began…no stranger to the kitchen..Mr. P. decided to try his hand at dolmades…the rustling of the leaves on his grapevines had been whispering with continued fervency to him since the first light green of Spring…

Another food item that held no interest to me…I do have to admit that I had never tasted one before…leaves should be something to be viewed with admiration as they turn into gold and red…not cooked and eaten…but just my view…

I do so relish trying new recipes and learning about new cuisines…after-all, cooking is the highest art form…although temporal at best…not just appealing to one sense…such as a painting appealing to sight and music appealing to the sense of sound…but if done well…

cooking is such an intimate art form…a thrill for all five senses at once…marrying the perfect balance of textures…flavors…colors…and aromas…creating memories and evoking feelings…

…but I digress

The final product was not what we thought it would be…the mature grape leaves were a little tough…but with Mr. P’s own unique mixture of spices the rice was tasty…he is an Engineer after-all…

Mr. P seemed to like his Borscht..he ate it two nights in a row…the recipe used was was from a Ukrainian recipe…but then, as I always do…made it my own… simmering Pork rashers with the Ukrainian sofrito of diced onions and finely julienned carrots…a stew…slightly sweet with a balancing tang…but as always…with the secret ingredient of “Love”…

for an interesting article on Borscht…https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/let-me-count-the-ways-of-making-borscht…

Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist – not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love.”
Keith Floyd, ‘A Feast of Floyd’