Take Center Stage

Take Center Stage
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Let It Go
By Violetta Armour

We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies.
~Roderick Thorp

I am a charter member of the "Clean Your Plate, Children in Europe are Starving Club." As a first generation American, I heard that phrase constantly from my mother who emigrated from Bulgaria. I was led to believe that if I ate all my food, my distant cousins might somehow miraculously benefit. I needed little encouragement with the delicious cuisine served in my mother's kitchen.

Looking back to those days in the fifties, our daily fare was what restaurants now claim to be gourmet selections: succulent Bulgarian entrees such as roasted lamb, stuffed cabbage, and stuffed peppers; phyllo pastry filled with cheese; and baklava dripping with honey and walnuts. My taste buds were awakened and refined at an early age. (Keep reading)