慈母的智慧

My home has always been a very special place to me, and the kitchen has always been the heart of my home. I can remember the day before I left for college, August 1967, sitting at the old, red and white, 1)Formica-topped kitchen table with my mother, Mary.

Every Sunday afternoon each of us had a small dish with a big, fat, fresh lemon, a knife, and a 2)shaker of 3)coarse salt. Sometimes the lemons were picked from our own lemon tree and sometimes they came from the store. But they were always the biggest and the juiciest that we could find.

My mother’s 4)old-world wisdom was, “If life hands you lemons, sit down, consider the situation, take out your 5)paring knife, cut away the peel, 6)sprinkle them with coarse salt to make them more 7)palatable, and eat them. Your life will always be better.”

And she was right. My mother had come from Sicily in the 1920s. Her dreams of becoming a high school English teacher never 8)materialized. Due to financial circumstances, she was forced to work in a garment factory to help her family with expenses. But aside from being an expert leather coat maker, she also became the best cook in her family, even 9)outshining her three sisters in Italian 10)cuisine.

There wasn’t anything she couldn’t cook. She’d make three-meat 11)lasagna, Italian bread, pizza 12)from scratch, soft-breaded 13)veal 14)cutlets, and 15)an array of different vegetables and fruits―most of which came from my father’s garden. She was also a real 16)whiz with a 17)pressure cooker. My father would bring in 18)ears of corn, fresh-picked from the tall 19)cornstalks in the back yard, and in minutes we would have steaming-hot sweet corn 20)drizzled in fresh homemade butter. Each meal was different and each was just a little bit of 21)heaven.

Often our neighbors witnessed my mother and her sister, Tina, on their hands and knees, 22)manicuring the lawn with a small knife and a large brown paper bag. What they were really doing was rooting out the 23)dandelion greens from the grassy yard. We would have big plates of salad made from dandelions (a great source of vitamins and iron) 24)saturated with a homemade 25)Caesar dressing made from red-wine vinegar, 26)anchovies, and extra-27)virgin olive oil. And this was all free for the taking, with Mother Nature providing the ingredients.

In addition to feeding her 28)immediate family, mother always made sure the animals were fed, and we always had a lot of animals. Though we lived within the city limits, we had chickens, rabbits, cats, and a dog. We never fed our cats and dogs “bagged” food. They always ate what we ate and there was never a thin dog or a thin cat at our house.

Because I was their only child and the only family member to have gone to college, there was a real celebration the night before I left. For a going-away treat, my mother made her Sicilian country-style Italian meatballs with homemade 29)pasta. It was a 30)divine meal that would remain in my mind and my heart forever.

The next day, we stood in our front yard waiting for my ride to college, the old 1919, three-story, gray frame house 31)dwarfing us as we stood silently. Although I am not a very tall person, I 32)towered over my parents, who were barely 5 feet tall. As the car approached, we said our “goodbyes” and I shook hands with my father. It was the Italian thing to do. My mother grabbed me, hugged me, and whispered in my ear, “Go make great memories, but make sure you make them with dignity so you will always be proud to look back on them.”

As the car 33)pulled away, I turned and looked back. There they stood―the smallest couple in size, but in 34)stature they held the biggest part of my heart.

对于我来说，家一直都是个非常特殊的地方，而厨房则永远都是我家的核心之地。我还记得1967年8月我去读大学的前一天，我和母亲玛丽一起坐在那张老旧的富美家红白面餐桌前。

每个周日下午，我们每个人都会用小碟子装上一个又大又饱满的鲜柠檬，配上一把小刀和一小罐粗盐。有时这些柠檬是从自家柠檬树上摘下来的，有时则是从商店里买来的，但它们永远都是我们能够找到的最大、最的柠檬。

我母亲的古老智慧是：“如果生活给你递来柠檬，那么坐下来，审时度势，拿出你的削皮刀，去掉外皮，洒上粗盐，让它变得更美味，然后吃掉它们。你的生活就会变得更美好。”

她是对的。我母亲在上世纪20年代从意大利西西里岛迁至此地。她一直梦想成为一名高中英语老师，却从未得以实现。由于家境不好，她被迫去了一家服装厂工作以帮补家计。不过，除了成为一名熟练的皮革制衣工之外，她还成了家里最棒的厨师，她烹制的意大利菜甚至使得她那三位姐妹都相形见绌。

没有什么菜式是她不会做的。她会做三肉烤宽面条、意大利面包、自制披萨、软面包小牛排，还有各种蔬菜和水果沙拉――其中大部分食材都来自于我父亲的菜园。她同时还是一位善用高压锅的奇才。我父亲会从后院那高高的玉米秆上摘下玉米并带进厨房，用不了几分钟我们就能吃上热气腾腾、浇洒上自制黄油的甜玉米。每一顿饭的菜式从不重复，而且每一顿饭都有快乐的气息。

我们的邻居常看到母亲和她的妹妹蒂娜一起拿着一把小刀和一只褐色的大纸袋趴在地上修剪草坪。但实际上她们是在寻找草坪上的蒲公英嫩叶。我们就会有大盘大盘的蒲公英沙拉吃（富含丰富的维他命和铁质），拌着由红酒醋、凤尾鱼和特级初榨橄榄油调配而成的自制凯撒酱。而这些都是免费取用的，因为大自然提供了所有原料。

除了要养活全家人之外，母亲还总是确保动物们都吃得饱饱的，而我们家总有许多动物。虽然我们住在市区内，但我们养了一些鸡、兔子、猫和一只狗。我们从不给猫狗喂“袋装的”食品。总是我们吃什么，它们就跟着吃什么，在我们家从来见不到瘦狗瘦猫。

因为我是家里的独子，也是家里唯一一个去读大学的成员，因此在我离家的前夜我们大肆庆祝了一番。为了这顿践行之宴，我母亲烹制了她的西西里乡村式意大利肉丸配自制意大利面。这顿非凡的美食将会永远留存在我的脑海和心中。

第二天，我们站在前院等候前往大学的汽车，当我们静静站在那里时，那栋建于1919年的老式三层灰框架楼使我们显得很渺小。虽然我并不是非常高大，但比起我那身高几乎不到5英尺（相当于1.52米）的父母，我还是高出许多。当汽车来到时，我们互道“再见”，然后我和父亲握了握手。这是意大利式的父子告别方式。我母亲抓住我，拥抱我，并在我耳边低语道：“去创造美好的回忆吧，做事要体面讲尊严，这样回首往事时你会永远心怀自豪。”

汽车渐渐驶离，我转身回望。他们就站在那里――那身型最矮小的一对夫妇，却在我心中占据了最高大的一部分。