A new book by trial lawyer Linda Hirshman, Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World, sounds like a step back for not only feminism but women. Emily Bazelton at Slate offers a review. Apparently, Hirshman’s solution to women’s problems is to work harder at their careers. In my perspective, the problem worldwide is that women work too much, not too little. Take a look and think about it.
The day has arrived when my mother is no longer able to prepare the foods I grew up with. What I have left is an old Dona Petrona cookbook in Spanish and some scribbled note cards. This weekend I ventured to prepared my mother’s pasta flora. It’s a quince pastry that I love. First, I had to venture into one of the latin markets, trying to see if I could find the quince paste critical to preparing it. Then, I had to allow enough time for the the unknowns in preparing this time-consuming indulgence. The cookbook is vintage 1940’s Argentina with metric measurements (when it bothers to give you a measurement at all). Instructions such as ” place in a moderate oven for 40 minutes, more or less” or ” add a little cup of water” are the rule.
Frustration and a little panic set in as I tried to decipher the cookbook and realized that losing these foods would be to lose a significant part of my life. After all, food is life and many of our most significant memories are wrapped in the smell of those foods that made our childhoods memorable. For me, it’s empanadas on my birthday, bunelos on rainy days and flan for comfort. They have become an edible record of my life. I better get busy lest I never taste them again.
