Chiyeko

My usual routine in the mornng is to clear away all clutter from my kitchen counter and to load the dishwasher. Yes, my dishwasher claim is that you just load it and forget it. All the crud is supposed to wash away and swirl down the drain in its process. Perhaps I'm just a doubting Thomas from Missouri, but I always scrape and rinse before I load. It was while I swirled my sponge around the inside of the lid to my favorite pot that I thought again of Chiyeko...This San Francisco-born lady proved to be my best friend during our stay in Japan. We visited her in Tokyo and I lamented the fact that our furniture, etc. had not yet arrived. I was happy with my newly purchased rice cooker and the electric skillet we bought, but I seemed to think I needed a pot! Immediately Chiyeko rummaged through her ampile supply of kitchen equipment and found a prize for me, a pot she "never used" and presented it to me. I was so grateful. It was a very heavy duty aluminum pan with a tightly fitting copper colored lid. That was forty years ago. Many vegetables were steamed, a chicken carcass boiled down to make stock. It's where I alwaysI burned the limas and stewed the tomatoes for soup. It made applesauce and oatmeal, sauce for barbecue on the grill. I cherish my very favorite kitchen implement. But it is the love she showered on me that now brings a tear to my eye while I remember.