Trust your sense of taste.

Cooking a book is a lot like kitchen cooking. We have recipes from the masters like Chef of the Day and Author of the Year, but learn to trust your own taste.

It’s nearing my favorite feast of the year and I’m pecking away at the keyboard so I can go get sloshed with my bird. Over the years, I’ve followed recipes, experimented with techniques and have come upon a formula for the best Mills Family Thanksgiving Turkey. We affectionately call it the “drunken turkey.”

After writing, I’ll pop a cork on a cheap bottle of Riesling and I’ll brine my 18 pound bird in wine, Kosher salt, honey, juniper berries, caraway seeds, mustard seeds and peppercorns. I’ve taste-tested many recipes and this one is the best.

I look forward to the day that I feel as confident with writing novels, that day when I can learn to trust my own sense of taste and break away from recipes and perfect my favorite. I want to achieve those same looks with readers as my family gives me at the dinner table. Ah, the ultimate goal.

Thought for Day 25:

“Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.”
~Madeleine L’Engle

Word Count: 1,537

Excerpt From Rock Creek:

“Is your mama dead?” Cling snuggled closer to Mary.

“I don’t rightly know. She was sold when I was but a boy not much older than you.” Cato shrugged, bouncing Lizzie who cast a rare smile.

“Sold?” Monroe folded his arms across his chest.

“Slaves are sold like horses or mules,” said Celia, as if explaining how to plant corn seed with pole beans.

James added, “According to the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court has declared that slaves are indeed property and subject to their owners regardless of the owner visiting a free or slave state.”

Monroe looked at his grandparents and then at the man holding his sister. He flung out his arm, pointing, “This is not a mule. He’s a man.”

“I belong to the O’Bannon family,” said Cato.

“But you aren’t a mule. Do you want to be owned?”

“I can’t talk about such things. It’s not how things is in Virginia.”

“Mama, this in not Virginia. Can’t we help Cato stay here?”

James walked over and laid a gentle hand on Monroe’s shoulder. “Monroe, North Carolina and Tennessee are both slave states, too.”

“But there’s no slaves in the mountains!”

“There’s a few plantations down in the valley at the edge of Watauga county. They have slaves. You’re right. We have no slaves here in the mountains.”

“We grow our own farms up here,” said Emily.

“Monroe, this is why our nation is squabbling, even our neighbors because the free states don’t want the slave states to expand their territories west. Some even want to abolish slavery all together.”

“Why don’t we?”

“Large plantations are created on an economy that requires slave labor. This is why those of us who believe in an intact union also believe in creating a fair economy. While slavery is something that needs to be addressed, so do the economic gains of all men in this nation. Not just the industrialists of the north.”

“What do the industrialists want,” asked Monroe.

“They want us to buy everything they make in their factories,” said Emily.

“Why? We make what we need.”

“Exactly. The common man needs to have a voice in economics,” said James.

Monroe looked at Cato. “Slaves need to have a voice, too.”

“I understand how you feel Monroe. It’s your Scots blood rising. The call of freedom. But freedom always comes at a cost. This is why a nation stands together for the good of its people. Otherwise its no better than serving a crown.”

“Let’s give him some gold coins so he can escape to a free state then.” Monroe looked at his grandfather, hopeful.

“Oh, no, young Master Monroe. I can’t run away.” Cato’s eyes grew wide.

Celia added, “If he was found with gold coins he’d have a difficult time explaining how he got them. And if he was captured, he could be severely punished.”

Mary realized that Monroe was developing Cob’s scowl. “Is Nebraska Territory a slave state,” he asked, practicing that scowl.

“No, it is not. Although that’s part of the dispute between states.”

Monroe kicked at a pebble in the yard. “Then I’m glad to be going to a free state.”

Later, James took the boys fishing and the women settled into making supper. Mary was denied even the most minimal of tasks in her pregnant condition so she sat in a rocker on the porch feeling useless. Cato had chopped some wood and returned to the porch where he was rocking Lizzie and telling her what a pretty girl she was.

“No one has said that of my Lizzie.”

Cato smiled wide. “Why she’s a pretty soul through and through.”

The longer Cato stayed with them the more Mary felt like Monroe. She had never thought much about slavery. It was a rich folks problem. If they could find a way to hide Cato and get him all the way out to Nebraska she would do it. Then she considered the obvious condition of Cato’s skin. He was so black he’d stand out. That thought made her even angrier. The slavers must have figured that one out long ago.

The skin color was so different that it made other folks superstitious. Silly prejudices that people developed out of fear so they wouldn’t involve themselves. Even Lizzie with her discernible differences made most people nervous. Being different scared folks. Look at what silly gooses they all acted like when Cato showed up. But what was even worse is how the black skin color stood out, making it difficult to hide.

This Nebraska Territory was sounding better all the time. She didn’t get into the politics of men, but now she had a better understanding of the economies men fought over. To Mary it seemed like the rich in the south were fighting with the rich in the north. They might go to war, but it would be people like her brothers and nephews who would fight it. Wasn’t this nation supposed to be different from that? Yes, she was beginning to better understand this desire to go west for a fresh start.

Celia stepped out on the porch and said, “Supper soon. Cato, would you fetch James and the boys?”

Mary watched Cato walk toward the creek, chatting away to Lizzie as if she were grown. “I hope the slaves are freed if it comes to war.”

Celia shook her head. “I wish it were that simple. They will be like a lot of lost children if set free. They’ll not know how to make their way in this world and they’ll be at the mercy of evil men for a long time I fear.”

Mary sighed. Nothing was easy and this coming war was only going to make things harder for good folks.  She said a prayer for Cato at bedtime, for Cob and for her family. “Lord spare us from the evil in this world.”