Free Not Becoming My Mother by Ruth Reichl

THE PENGUIN PRESS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group
(Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson
Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland,
25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd,
250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group
Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017,
India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd,
24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    First published in 2009 by The Penguin Press,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
     

     
Copyright © Ruth Reichl, 2009
    All rights reserved
     
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
     
    Reichl, Ruth.
Not becoming my mother : and other things she taught me along the way / Ruth Reichl.
p. cm.
    eISBN : 978-1-101-04638-8
    1. Reichl, Ruth. 2. Reichl, Miriam. 3. Women food writers—United States—Biography. I. Title.
TX649.R45A3 2009
641.5092—dc22
[B]
2008054681
     

     

     
    Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
    The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
    http://us.penguingroup.com

For you, Mom. Finally.

The Mim Tales
    My mother’ s name wa s Miriam, but most people called her Mim. She was such a character that as a child I developed a special form of literature; it was known as the Mim Tale. This is one of my favorites.
    “Hurry up, hurry up,” my mother is shouting as she races through our small apartment, “we’re going to be late again!”
    This is nothing new; my mother is incapable of arriving anywhere on time. But she has just become the leader of my Brownie troop, and the powers that be have emphasized the importance of punctuality. She grabs a red hat, crams it onto her head, and dashes for the door. I am right behind her. Just as the door begins to close Mom shouts, “Oh, no, I forgot the snack!”
    “Mom,” I moan. “You can’t forget the snack again. You forgot it last week.”
    “Don’t be fresh!” she snaps, inserting herself into the arc of the closing door. “We have no time to shop. Come back in and help me find something delicious.”
    “We don’t have anything,” I say flatly.
    “Nonsense,” she says, striding to the refrigerator. She surveys the contents with a gimlet eye and gingerly extracts a bowl. It is covered with bright blue fuzz, but she carefully scrapes this off, murmuring, “This must be that chocolate pudding I made last month.” She pokes in a finger, tastes tentatively and says triumphantly, “What a good start!”
    “There’s not very much,” I say hopefully. I am aware that any mention of the pudding’s antique character will be unwelcome; my mother is a firm believer in the benign nature of mold. “It’s not enough for all of us.”
    “I know that!” she says crossly. “We’re going to stretch it. See what you can find in the cupboard.”
    “Like what?” I ask dubiously.
    “Oh, use