warm dinner plates are awesome...

i held a wine and cheese book club meeting at my home last night and our book up for discussion was "the book of awesome" by neil pasricha... we talked about our own "awesome" things during the club meet and i decided to submit mine at http://1000awesomethings.com/submit/ today...

"when i was a kid, my mother would always put a stack of dinner plates in the oven a few minutes before the meal was ready for serving. she'd reach in to the oven -- barehanded i might add -- to pull out the warmed stack of plates, while simultaneously calling out to the family to assemble in the kitchen. we'd rush the stove top to pick a plate from the pile and begin serving. although as a kid -- and to some degree to this very day -- my "baby" hands couldn't handle the heat. the plates were usually too warm for me to hold as I served up mashed potatoes, meat and the other fixings. i'd opt for a dish towel to hold the edge, or a full-blown oven mitt.

into my teens i complained about how the hot plates were just too hot... that is until i fully appreciated the comfort they bring. the warmth of the plate provides a lasting burst of heat to the food as you serve from the stove to when you take your place at the table. and now every time i'm passed a warm plate at a restaurant and the waiter says, "be careful, it's hot", i grin with satisfaction that my mother always provided that dining experience in our very own home. similarly, when i head back to ontario for a visit, i smile from ear to ear as i watch my mother following her decades long routine of pulling those warm plates out of the stove while enthusiastically inviting everyone to come together for a wonderful home-cooked meal."