I resisted Facebook for years, but the ease with which I could share and view pictures of a high-school reunion compelled me. So like most
people my age, I found myself using the site to
reconnect with a past I had previously ignored or forgotten. Then, when
my husband passed
away suddenly a little more than a year ago, Facebook became a strange
lifeline during my first
year of grief. Frankly, being on Facebook makes me think about what it
must be like to be dead,
floating like a ghost into and out of people’s lives, into and out of
all the worlds we’ve inhabited. The compression and conflation of time
that Facebook provides makes way for the beguiling draw of nostalgia.
Nostalgia, like grief, is essentially homesickness, and we tend to get homesick when we want to restore the parts of ourselves we think we are losing or have lost. Soon enough, I found myself looking up my old summer camps, my old junior high school (that’s what we New Yorkers called middle school), and inevitably I discovered a Facebook page dedicated to Riverdale, the small northwest Bronx neighborhood where I spent my formative years.
It hit me hard. A craving for pimento cheese just came out of nowhere and wham! I had to have some.
This dish is so good that I had to hold my self back from eating the entire dish. A new Sunday morning favorite has just arrived. I inevitably always have left over Challah.
My oldest son saw this in a magazine and instantly
proclaimed he wanted it for dinner. I was rather surprised as most
kids, including my own, don't like food that is touching or mixed up.
In other words, casseroles are usually out.
I can't remember exactly
where I had my first taste of beef short ribs. A restaurant? Someone's
house? I do know they were served over cheesy polenta and together they
did this little dance in my mouth (I think it was a rumba). Anyway,
the meat was so tender and overall was a very good food memory.