Tortillas and Tea~ A Lifetime Together

I grew up between two cultures, Latin and European. My father, a handsome Englishman, and my mother, a beautiful Mexican/Native American, were married forty-six years ago today. An unusual and unlikely possibility for most people these days, (I have friends who can't commit to dinner plans let alone a lengthy marriage) somehow my parents have managed to go the distance. With a great sense of humor, commitment, and of course lots of love, anything is possible. Here, here!

Flanked by two brothers at the kitchen table, we were stuffed full of delicious, homemade food. At Christmas time we ate from Grandma Medina's two-hundred tamales, and when we traveled to England, we cherished Grandma Walker's never ending tea sandwiches and cakes. But Mom really did all the cooking. Every night we sat down for dinner as a family. And once the word got out about the Walker family dinners, friends would show up hungry. The door was always open and if the food ran out Dad would run to the market for a small ham or another cut-up chicken; and Mom would make stir-fried rice, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, whatever she could quickly make to feed the hungry teenagers squeezed around our  small dinner table.  It's no wonder my parents are known, to this day, as Mom and Dad Walker, and no wonder Mom is hailed as the Left-Over Queen. No one has ever been more resourceful than her and no food could ever taste as good as Mom's.

But there's one dish that stood out over the years. Mom's sopa with handmade flour tortillas. This was my favorite and she would make it whenever I wanted it. She'd make it after school, for breakfast, even over a camp stove under the redwoods, and over a fire pit at the beach. She always used a heavy iron skillet and the smell of the pan roasting on the stove is still my favorite aroma. How many times I've watched her heat up the skillet, toast the broken pasta, fry the garlic, stew the tomatoes; while rolling-out fresh balls of tortilla dough to scorch over a hot skillet; I cannot begin to count. I could eat this for the rest of my life.

So, what is this favorite dish~ Sopa? Sopa de fidello, as it's called in Mexico, is not truly a soup as the name implies but a fried, soupy, thin spaghetti with garlic and tomatoes, eaten with fresh tortillas. Very similar to an Italian pasta pomodoro. The scorched bits of pasta give the dish a toasty undercurrent; and for me shouts-out 'Mom is cooking!'

So, today I wanted Mom's sopa. And as I began to fry the pasta I thought about my parents and their anniversary and I was inspired to cook like Mom~ the way she cooks for Dad. Dad is still very English in many ways, and loves his brussell sprouts, steak and kidney pie, sausage rolls; all dishes my mother loves and makes really well. And with that very thought, the proverbial skillet hit me over the head.  Toast the pasta and marry it with minced brussell sprouts and garlic. And what a fine dish it was!

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you!