Sweetie Pie

My mother was good under fire.

A cool cucumber.

Unflappable.

When my father and BigBrother were living in New York, and my mother and I were still in MD, we spent a lot of time with my best friend and her family. The moms got to be friends and we would often eat dinner with them.

On one such occasion Miss Pat made lasagna.

But as she took it out of the oven it slipped out of her hands and crashed to the floor…..upside-down.

She looked at my mother in horror and said, “What are we going to do now?”

My mother said, “We’ll just scrape it up and put it back in the pan.”

Miss Pat said, “I can’t do that! I have a dog!”

Without hesitation my mother scooped up the lasagna and plopped it back into the pan, leaving one layer on the floor, sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and popped it back into the oven.

After they had cleaned up the mess left on the floor, they called us all to the table.

Mr. D. said, “This smells good. What is it?”

“Lasagna,” replied Miss Pat.

“Lasagna? I thought lasagna was in layers.”

Without missing a beat my mother reached for the pan and said, “It’s a new recipe.”

We were none the wiser until years later when Miss Pat and my mother laughingly told us the story!

(*Sweetie Pie was the dog’s name)