Mixed mushroom risotto

Not to be pathetic, but sometimes my main motivation to get through the day is knowing what's planned for the nights dinner. Sure, I can throw together a mean tuna sandwich and spinach salad, but knowing that come 7:00 pm I will get to sit down to an amazingly delicious hot meal can really motivate me to get that run in, or to not lock myself in my room during the all too common temper tantrum.

So I'm sure you can understand why come Friday night, I was half devastated when Marc called to say that him and the boys would be leaving for Chamonix immediately when he got home, and could I please tell Flora (their housekeeper) that she wouldn't need to make dinner.

The menu for the night was cauliflower soup, and mixed mushroom risotto. Already having bought over 15 francs of dried and fresh mushrooms for the recipe, I decided to ignore my almost complete lack of cooking skill and attack the mushroom risotto, head on. I asked Flora if it was difficult, and she said, in her cute Filipino accent "no, this one, it is easy!" I read it through and had a few questions, (how the hell do you peel a leek??) and Flora asked if I would like her to stay and teach me to cook. I told her, "no, I'll be fine on my own," but as I attempted to soak the dried mushrooms, turned my back for one second and had porcini mushroom water all over the stove, it became apparent her assistance would be needed. I think she took me on as a bit of a charity case, her traditional views rendering the situation a dire one....... "MaggYEE, you need to learn to cook, because one day when you will be having a husband, you will need to know!"

For the next hour, we peeled leeks (it's really not that hard, and they are delicious!), sauteed garlic and chopped mushrooms. I also learned about her children, her life, and as Bill Clinton would say "her story." She worked for 2 years in Kuwait for a royal Sheik's family, with 7 (!!) other Filipinas who were on their staff. 7 in the morning until 7 at night, they worked cleaning the house/palace, and "caring"for the children....which included being blackmailed by them to cover up their forbidden trysts. Until one time when they went on holiday to France, and she was able to run away in the night! She has been in Geneva for 7 years, taking care of children and working for different families, most of them crazy (one woman who would follow her around, dragging her index finger on every surface she had just cleaned, searching for any last traces of dust). Three of her children still live in the Philippines, and one in the U.S. Her daughter who lives in the U.S. met her husband through the internet...they emailed, he came to the Philippines once, and decided he would marry her. She still supports her 3 children (who all have their own children) her niece, her nephew, and her alcoholic husband who just had to have liver surgery. I was sitting in aww at how someone, who probably doesn't make very much money in the first place, could support 6 adults as well as herself. She told me, "MaggYEE, it is hard. When I want to buy something nice for myself I hold it up and think, will my grandchildren get enough to eat??"

This to me is unthinkable. I looked at the steaming pot of nearly-ready mixed mushroom risotto and thought about the incredibly elaborate nutrition it contained. I thought about the Paris Hiltons of the world, and how one could spend $100,000 on a single shopping spree, when people are going hungry, and much worse. I thought about my own situation living abroad, being teased by my family about how I would surely end up squashing grapes in a basement, à la Bart in the Simpsons. I thought about how I laughed it off, because I knew that if things got really bad, I could hop a plane and be home to comfort, luxury and love in the morning.

Hearing Flora's story, having to escape from a horrible working situation to find another that would be only slightly better, made me take an internal inventory and realize just how lucky I am. Hearing how the other half lives, having a house, a yard, 3 cars, a hot tub, a pool and a dog makes me seem like a Sheik (or the female equivalent) in my own right. Lucky too, in getting to meet someone raised literally in a different world. Knowing women will voluntarily go as "mail order brides" to try and better their lives is a good reminder to not get too comfortable or wrapped up in my own life, and lose sight that people are suffering, everywhere and everyday.

My first attempt at "real" cooking turned out pretty damn good. The rice was al dente (ok that's italian but it still gets italics), the mushrooms were juicy, and the garlic flavor was perfectly balanced, not too strong but still pungent. But I know it only turned out so highly delicious bbecause of the gracious help of someone who has made a job of cooking others' meals since she was 16 yrs old.

Part of me feels blessed that I am lucky enough to be 22 years old, and still such a bad cook.