Sun Dried Tomatos with Mom

As per my previous entry, the car crash, my mother and I were at home together.  It was like the blind leading the blind, except, to be honest, I was recovering much faster than her.

So, on a scorching hot summer day in Los Angeles, we were sitting together at the dining table.  I went outside, and she noticed I was sun drying some of the hottest peppers in the world, Thai Chillis.  They're already small in size; so, they were looking like red rubies.

She looked at her plentiful harvest of bright red tomatoes and asked me if I knew how to sun dry them.  I said, "Of course.  Just like they do in Italy."  So, together, we started slicing and salting tomatoes.  We left them out in the scorching Southern Californian sun to dry.  In three days they did.

I packed them with olive oil and garlic.  I started eating them, and they tasted just like Heaven.  We were sitting at the dining table, and for some reason I remembered the best meal I had in Italy.

I said, "You know, Mom, the best meal I had in Italy was at a place called Cinque Terra.  It means the Five Lands and it overlooks the Mediterranean.  I met a Norwegian couple, and we sat at a cafe on a cliff.  Down below was the bluest waters of the Mediterranean.  You could smell the sea. 

I ordered fresh handmade pasta with fresh pesto.  The pesto was really good because the olive oil was made fresh at a olive orchard near the cliffs.  It was green and spicy that oil.  It was a bit expensive for just pasta, but it was really the best meal I ever had in Italy."

And she said in her pessimistic way, "Well, you can forget about that memory now.  It's just a dream.  You need to find a job."

And with those words, I was brought back to reality.

PS: My next post will be back on cancer.  Just had to put this story in between.