Tag: For the Love of Food

Thank You Writing Your Life Story Writers

Back in September 2022, I joined a local Memoir Writers’ Group (later changed to Writing Your Life Story) at the Evergreen Seniors Community Centre and, for the next 3½ years, I met weekly with a small number of like-minded seniors. Jennifer Blackie, our group leader and facilitator, wrote her life story during the COVID-19 isolation and felt that perhaps others would like to record their life journeys too. She felt led to offer her experience and guide that first group of twelve writers through the process. The initial focus was to record our life story as an autobiography written in chronological order.

We all had a desire to record our stories. I think the reasons for writing our life stories may have differed. Some wanted to write to leave memories for their family. Some wrote truly for themselves as an assessment of their own lives. We all want to know our lives matter. We want to know we left a mark. We value our memories as our legacy and want a record of them left behind. Perhaps our families are not the least bit interested in reading them at this time but, one never knows, there may come a day when they are glad to have the stories and the information and memories they contain. I know my own daughters didn’t value their old journals from school but as they aged and had children of their own, now they do. Some had bigger dreams and hoped that their stories would be of value and interest to a general public. Perhaps they may even be published someday.


I joined the group because I had a memoir-in-progress titled For the Love of Food: Family Edition. It was to be a memoir/cookbook that traced food as a language of love throughout five generations of my family from my grandparents, my parents, myself, my children, to my grandchildren and was to include food-related poems, stories, and recipes from my family history. I had been researching and writing alone for 1½ years and I wanted the company of other writers for encouragement and companionship.
 

In addition, in October 2022, I began a 12-week online course called Memoir Writers, Ink led by teacher Alison Wearing. I wanted to improve my writing and had a lot to learn. Both the weekly WYLS meeting and the online course activities were fun and informative and added to my writing skills. Both gave me a kick-in-the-butt to stick to a regular writing regime.


I love story! We all have them. We all think, “I have nothing of interest to others” but, in the end, we do. Sharing our simple memorable moments is a wonderful way to share our lives and identify with each other or learn new things. Even if we all visit Paris, we each will have a unique story to tell about it from our own perspective. There is value in that.

Week by week, we shared our stories and learned more and more about each other. Sharing our stories began to bond us together in trust and community. We realized we all have happy stories and we all have sad stories and there has been much laughter and some tears over the months and years. The members of the group have become good friends, almost like family. We have become very close and truly care about each other. This is not usual in a writer’s group. Over the years, I have been a member of several writer’s groups and I have never enjoyed any of them as much as I have this wonderful group of people.  

I am grateful for the experience of knowing you all. I have never known such a group of fun-loving and heartfelt people. Thank you to all of you for your openness and respect. Thank you for sharing your lives and allowing me to get to know you so well.

Jennifer, thank you for creating this group, for working so hard to keep us all on track, for offering your encouragement and ideas, and for the extensive work on the anthologies which took hours of time and stacks of paper. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your home with us for some truly epic parties. I’ll never forget our Summer Beach Party complete with fresh mocktails, colourful leis, a patio barbecue, and outdoor games.  What fun we had at our Christmas Party sharing gifts and talents after an amazing meal. And who can forget our Afternoon Tea Party, with scones and clotted cream, china tea pots, and fancy hats and fasteners.


I will miss you all but acknowledge that the time has come to move on to new projects. My book was published in December 2024 and I thank Jennifer and that early group of writers that gave me a platform to share my work and get feedback and encouragement. It was because of your friendship that I stayed on and kept writing for another 1½ years and made more new friends.  I now have so many stories, enough to fill even more books. My Life Story isn’t over yet!

A New Book – For the Love of Food: Family Edition

For the Love of Food: Family Edition is a collection of stories and recipes praising food as a language of love through five generations of the author’s family. This memoir/cookbook is a testament to the life-giving power of food as it moves from field to table with gratitude, bonding, and celebration.

It’s a book for readers who love to cook, and cooks who love to read. Reminisce about your own mealtime memories and be inspired. Get into the kitchen and start cooking!

“This book is a beautiful reminder of how food can be a powerful vessel for preserving and sharing our most treasured family moments.””
~Amy McIntyre, Wine Educator, European Travel Planner

“A feast of joyful cooking.”
~Donna McCaw, Author, Across the Great Divide and It’s Your Time

“As she takes you down memory lane, she whets your taste buds. You’ll find yourself in the kitchen cooking up a storm immersed in your own memories.”
~Ruth Smith Meyer, Author, Out of the Ordinary and Chains of Shame

“Barbara Heagy has created a cozy, comforting read that stimulates your appetite and makes you want to get into your own kitchen and start cooking.”
~Wendy Jamieson, Chef, Restaurateur (Forage Restaurant)

“Her passion and love of food is apparent as she shares recipes and stories from her own life. Although not a professional chef, she honours food with a diverse palate and a plethora of fresh ingredients.”
~Matthew Bach Jamieson, Head Chef and Restaurateur (Mad Apples, Woodside, Forage Restaurants)

Paperback copies are available through Amazon.ca, hardcover copies through Amazon.com, or through an email message at barb_mcquarrie@hotmail.com

“It Doesn’t Taste Like Yours”

(Photo by Deborah Rainford)

“I followed your recipe and it didn’t taste like yours.”

This Easter weekend at our family gathering Gerri, Maegan’s mother-in-law, was telling my daughter Brittany that she had tried Brittany’s famous-in-our-family’s Kale Salad and it didn’t turn out as good as Brittany’s. Brittany laughed and said, “It always tastes better when someone else makes it.”

Why does that happen? You think you are following a recipe carefully and perfectly and yet the final product doesn’t taste as good as that prepared by the original cook.

There are a lot of factors. It has happened to me too as I try to duplicate Grandma’s Cucumber Salad or that delicious Spinach Avocado Dip I had in the restaurant the other day. The availability of fresh-off-the-farm ingredients, the age of your spices and pantry items, the cooking pans and utensils you use or the variable heat from oven to oven, it didn’t cook long enough, you stirred it too much or too little, can all be factors that change the taste of something from cook to cook.

All we can do is not give up and keep trying. Practice makes perfect. Use the best of ingredients, vary your techniques, taste as you go, and enjoy the process.

And perhaps what Brittany said is true. It’s always better to be the recipient of someone’s else meal made with loving hands.

1 Teaspoon of Paprika

The Internet is a wonderful place for synchronistic connections. I was working on my next chapter “Pass It On” which focuses on recipes passed down from my Hungarian Grandma Haydu. Many of them include Hungarian Paprika with its unique taste. It is different from other paprikas and Hungarians can tell the difference. Well, lo and behold, I came across this beautiful photograph on another Facebook site I belong to and thought “How perfect!”

The photographer Phillip Dove lives in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, United Kingdom, and graciously allowed me to use his photograph in my upcoming book “For the Love of Food: Family Edition.” All he asked for in return was a copy of my grandma’s Hungarian Goulash which I gladly sent to him. Thank you, Phillip. Check out his website at phillipdovephotography.com

Pass It On

I am now working on my next chapter of my upcoming book “For the Love of Food: Family Edition.” The chapter is called “Pass It On” and I write about our connections to our descendants.

“Look back. Our descendants made us who we are today. We fit together like nesting dolls going back and back in circles of time. Because of my mother, I exist. Because of her mother, she exists.

Our bodies are living continuations of our parents, our grandparents, and all those that came before them, generation upon generation. Our ancestors are literally a living part of us. We carry their diets, their lifestyles, their hopes, their traumas, within our very cells. My hands become our hands. My spirit becomes their spirit.

When I smell the spicy scent of paprika, I am sent down the paths of the past to Hungarian kitchens, to cuisine birthed in European soils. When a cloud of flour rises off grandma’s wooden noodle board, I envision golden stalks of wheat and oats flowing across miles and miles of Canadian prairie fields waving in the distance. The soft touch of a feathery dill that tickles my nose when I bend to take in its powerful scent, sends me back through the past to steaming kitchens as cooks fill crocks and bottles with nature’s bounty. When I shake the dirt off a carrot yanked fresh out of the garden, I am doing what my ancestors did as they worked their fields with sun on their backs, mud on their feet and fullness in their hearts.”
~Barbara Heagy from “For the Love of Food: Family Edition”

For the Love of Food – A Celebration

Writing continues on my upcoming memoir cookbook that honours the place of food and family in our lives. The following is a poem that will be in the opening chapter:

A Celebration by Barbara Heagy

Food and cooking is a celebration.

It’s a celebration of family, community, and togetherness.
Gathered around a table laden with good, wholesome food, laughing, and sharing stories.
Coming together to
Chop and blend,
Fold and stir,
A joyous circle of belonging.
Here, I am part of a whole.

It’s a celebration of the senses.
The colours of a leafy salad with bright tomatoes, green cucumbers, and orange, red, and yellow peppers.
The soft, gluten feel of bread kneaded in your hands.
The exotic aroma of a scented curry with cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cardamom.
The crunching sound of crispy celery, a juicy apple, or the thick, warm bubbling of a stove-top stew.
The taste that melts in your mouth, burns your tongue, or bursts on your taste buds in sheer delight.

It’s a celebration of the body, re-energized and rejuvenated or sated with belly full.
Perhaps I may not remember what I ate but my body remembers the generosity and love in which the food was given.
I remember being
Welcomed and embraced,
Comforted and consoled,
My heart nourished.

It is a celebration of nature,
A cycle of seed, growth, harvest, and preparation
Recognizing and respecting the circle of life.
We acknowledge the sun, and the rain, and the fertile soils,
The passing of the seasons.
We recognize the sacrifice of the animals given for our good.
We are thankful for
Our beloved planet and all its gifts
So freely given.

It’s a celebration of tradition.
A gathering cast in time
To be remembered and honoured
Season after season,
Generation after generation.
A rhythm of lives past that never forgets
As we pass on our skills.

It’s a celebration of culture,
Of diversity and unity.
I remember who I am
And where I come from.
I praise who you are
And where you come from.
I travel the world
Tasting its variety and goodness,
Raw or prepared,
Simple or exotic.
It is an opportunity to applaud you and your life.

It’s a celebration of time,
A pause,
An acknowledgement of each other
In our busy lives.
We meet together in gratitude
As we greet and thank those that laboured,
Farmer or cook,
Gave of themselves
For these gifts before us.
Sometimes we choose a day or moment
And mark it special,
Happy Birthday to you,
Merry Christmas,
And we create rites and rituals that intensify
Its meaning and importance
Not only for us but for future generations.
We hope to always remember
To value each other and our contributions
For our better good and fulfillment.