A Culinary Day

Bobbie and Becca

I have mentioned several times that Margaret is a helper-girl with most household tasks.  When I iron, she always stands right over my feet, between me and the ironing board - just stands there, giving emotional support.  When I am vacuuming, she is always nearby rooting for me, and incidentally dropping hair and dander just to make the task more fulfilling.  But it is in the kitchen where her homemaker talents come to the fore.  As I chop vegetables, she is ever vigilant, making sure that nothing which might fall from the counter will sully the floor for more than an instant. 

When Rebecca and I were preparing noodles for our dinner last week, Margaret was in her element.  First, she helped Rebecca prepare the noodle dough in the food processor.  Becca had the processor on the floor, as every other surface was taken up by some other food preparation item.  Margaret was right there, giving tips and trying to lick any crumbs off the Cuisinart.  Then, when we were actually rolling the dough through the pasta machine, she was initially even more vigilant.  Eventually, when we had our giant lasagna noodles slung across chair backs, well out of her reach, she apparently got bored - totally indifferent to the business at hand.  Suddenly, I heard a yelp from Becca.  I turned around, and there was Margaret with  noodle in her mouth.  

A similar thing had happened when Becca was a little girl, and is one of her happy childhood memories.  She, my friend Fortunata, and I were rolling out noodles with the pasta machine, and laying them out on the kitchen table.  We all gasped in amazement as we watched one of the huge noodles slowly disappear over the edge of the table.  Our dog Bobbie Ross was under the table, being totally silent and unobtrusive.  As a noodle drooped over the table edge a tiny bit, he grasped it in his mouth, and not making a sound, pulled it under the table where he could slyly eat it.  We could not believe it.  We had not even known he was in the room.  What a clever dog Bobbie was!  Margaret was not quite so subtle, but as you can see in the picture, she did make a few tries at the noodle when our backs were turned, and actually managed to get a few nibbles off one of them.