Abuelita Grandiosa

My grandmother...Abuelita’s kitchen, a bright palette of pink with mismatched cupboards filled with trinkets and flowered glassware, was an enchanting place! There was never a moment when one of her meals wasn’t taking shape on the wood burning stove. A pot of beans bubbling away or fresh maize tortillas cooking on a blackened skillet usually with a small iron placed atop. I remember growing up in this house for the first 6 years of my life and recalling that although there was little money, there was always much love in my grandmother’s cooking and that itself was enough to engulf all the riches in the world.  Later, I would return to Mexico every summer to visit my grandmother. Abuelita’s special empanadas filled with pumpkin were a hit on the weekends, during holidays and grand get-togethers. She’d make them in abundance. The entire house was filled with this wonderful, enticing aroma of pumpkin, cinnamon and sweet nutmeg. The preparation of these wonderful "little pies" occupied every space in that kitchen. The chaos was oh so wonderful! The mere extent of my help involved sealing the edges by pressing them down with a fork ever so carefully. Batches and batches went in and out of the oven throughout the entire day. By the evening, there were bowls full of empanadas stacked and covered with her best kitchen towels. We'd have them for dessert that evening and then for breakfast the following morning with café con Leche. Six years ago, my grandmother came to visit and I asked her to show me how to make empanadas. “We have to get up early because it’s quite some work.” She would say. On the morning I thought I would finally master empanada making, sleep deprivation prevailed; This was around the time I had just given birth to Abigail. By the time the baby and I woke up, she had already kneaded the dough, rolled it out, filled the circles with pumpkin and had cookie sheets occupying my double oven. This is one of my fondest memories of her. She’s still alive but not doing very well. I spoke to her last night and I can’t help but feel her celebration of life coming to an end. I cried myself to sleep last night. Today, I’m coping by taking comfort in this special memory. The word Empanada has become a term of endearment. An endearment so strong that when I close my eyes, I take a deep sigh and I can actually smell the enticing aroma of her treats while I see the grandest woman in my life, my grandmother, Abuelita Grandiosa!