Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
“The thing is, garlic has such a strong smell that it doesn't take much – you can't use garlic like anything else in your recipe when you are using it raw on top of other food, but you also don't need to. It announces itself.”
Almost-18-year-old Vanna Trent was showing her next-door neighbors ten-year-old Andrew and eleven-year-old Eleanor Ludlow how garlic cheese popcorn was made.
“Yeah, it's like cinnamon for soda – unless you are trying to make cinnamon soda, you really gotta be careful,” Andrew said.
Mrs. Thalia Ludlow had come in on Zoom on Mrs. Velma Stepforth's phone, and Mrs. Gladys Jubilee Trent was standing right there observing – all three grandmothers were very happy.
“The ancestral knowledge is being transferred to the next generation,” Mrs. Trent said.
“Isn't it wonderful?” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“Things money cannot be – we knew you would want to hear this, Thalia!” Mrs. Stepforth said.
“You need to bring Maggie over though – watch our young Italian-American bride completely throw that garlic proportion off!” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“Oh, Vanna is ahead of you – she's already gone and talked with Mrs. Lee about what real garlic butter popcorn ought to taste like, and Mrs. Lee already is in the mix!” Mrs. Trent said.
“See, this is really cheese popcorn, but you just want the hint of garlic – add more than this, and cheddar cheese isn't strong enough to get through it,” Vanna was saying. “You want to give people bad breath, not bad memories.”
“Yep, that's our grandchild,” Mrs. Trent said to Mrs. Stepforth.
“Well, a bad breath can be a bad memory, though,” Eleanor said.
“Yep -- that time we were in Big Loft and that poor drunk passed by and said hi to all of us.” Andrew said. “You could tell he was still a kind person, but we're short and all that breath coming down … yeah, that's a bad memory.”
“And those are definitely my grandchildren!” Mrs. Ludlow said as all three grandmothers discreetly laughed.
