Living and Cooking Solo

Years ago, my mother-in-law, Bonnie, now deceased, gave me an 8-inch caste-iron skillet.  It now hangs along side other 8-inch skillets purchased after I started cooking for one.  The skillet retains it quality just as my mind holds on to my memories of the woman who gave it to me. Bonnie was a wonderful woman and a saint of a mother-in-law.  My mother lived twelve hundred miles a way in California, so Bonnie became my advisor, confidant and friend.  So much so that when my new husband and I encountered the rough patches found in many new marriages, I would pack up the car, including my then two-year-old step-daughter, and head out to visit Bonnie who lived 25 miles away in the small town of Culver, Kansas. Bonnie never asked why the visit although she sensed my troubled emotions.  She just welcomed me, soothing my hurt feelings and making me feel every thing would turn out fine.  She never took sides and I never asked her too.  She simply...