It's a feast!

Feeding Mama has its challenges. Her food palette (and perhaps her palate as well) is fairly limited. She likes kid food, familiar food, and country cooking. Some of this is a reflection of the cultural foodways of East Texas and the Texas Gulf Coast. Some of it reflects economics. These days, we also have to factor in age and memory loss. If she only remembers a few food terms, then she can only request (or understand the description of) a few foods or dishes.

It is interesting then to sometimes stumble across something that Mama clearly loves but didn't know she did. Like pizza.

The most fun, however, is to cook something that she likes and see her face light up with delight when she declares, "It's a feast!" Feasts include pancakes, French toast, chicken fingers, and, these days, pizza.

Mama hasn't been well enough to go out to a restaurant for some time. This spring I have started trying to coax her into going inside (as opposed to driving through) to eat, reminding her that she doesn't have to walk (I push the wheel chair) and that she has enjoyed the restaurant before (even though she may not remember it).

My Prince and his daughter came for a brief visit recently. In order to accommodate all the food tastes in the group, I suggested that we take Mama to Cici's Pizza. She hadn't been there in at least a year, perhaps even two. She didn't remember the name or the food until we wheeled in the door--and then she remembered that she and Daddy used to love to go to Cici's when he was alive, that this was one of her favorite places to eat.

Indeed it was. I fetched and she ate. And ate. And ate. Normally she eats really small meals. I sometimes have to work hard to tempt her appetite. That night she ate seven pieces of pizza (excluding the end crusts), one cinnamon roll, one brownie, and five slices of dessert pizza. And laughed and talked and clearly had a great time.

It was, indeed, a feast.

One we will repeat as soon as possible.