A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. ~Maya Angelou

Boy, I posted a lot yesterday. Five times! *Phew* Guess I had a lot to say. However, I'll post just a little (we'll see) one today, (unless I have to say something really, really, really bad.)

My dad was born in Utah and my mom was born in Wisconsin. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany.

While growing up, my parents would make these dishes of food that melded the two different cultures they originated from.

You wouldn't think that there'd be too many differences in their cooking since they were both born and raised in the United States, but there were.

My mother came from a long line of Scandinavians, throw in some "other" and you get lots of one-pot cooking. Potatoes, sauces of the cream variety, and sausage, etc.

My father was raised in the southwest; full of beans and rice, red sauces and beef. Tortillas and corn/maize, intricate dishes involving build-your-own steps.

Together they would serve us their hybred foods. "Goulash" made with whole tomatoes and beef and beans and egg noodles. Not really a goulash (w/ creamy sauces) and not really a chili (not enough beans). Mornings my father would make oatmeal and add cayenne pepper powder. He'd eat sandwiches made of butter and onions on bread. On the road (since we travelled a lot) we were served hotdogs wrapped in tortillas. Bologna with tortillas. Cheese with tortillas. Tortillas, tortillas, tortillas...

Since the two of them were travellers, whether one wanted to or not, we had a lot of influences within our diets. We'd have to have been dead not to. We knew Native American dishes, Southern dishes (even learned how to catch our own crawdads), Mexican and Spanish Dishes. Jewish foods, and vegetarian, too.

To this day, the thrill of new foods is still there. My sister has learned to make her own sushi, another sister knows how to brew a Turkish tea to knock your socks off. I know how to make greek-style stuffed grape leaves, quiches, and a meatloaf that your mother would swear I stole from her.