Mimi called this morning. She’s been up since 2:00 am with jet lag, and with excitement over her recent adventures in Oman (the country) and Amman, Jordan, that including speaking and sales of Once-a-Month Cooking. She has a knack, and a passion, for adapting what we call “the method” wherever she goes.
To Mimi and me, Once-a-Month Cooking is the story of a friendship. In 1982, with three young children each, Mimi and I had been writing magazine articles together. Well, maybe two or three. She loved having company. She has always made family of company. And she wanted to do it more easily. So she called me one day to tell me she had devised a method of making a month’s dinner entrees at a time and freezing them. She wanted me to call the Denver Post and see if they wanted us to write an article about it. I thought she was crazy, so I said she should call them. She did, and they sent a reporter and photographer to her house within the week to do a Wednesday food feature.
After the article released, Mimi’s phone rang incessantly with people wanting her to explain how to do it. A year later, with the Rocky Mountain News proposing another article, we wrote it in booklet format to get people off her back. So much for big publishing dreams. I typed it, our kids helped us work the machine that added the comb binder, and we offered it in the article for $3.50. The first day of mail after the article I ceremoniously opened my mailbox to find 64 envelopes. A book was born.
In the years since then it’s been published and we’ve revised/updated it several times, including this past winter. It’s been produced on video and a short-lived CD-ROM version. We’ve spoken all over — Mimi on most continents. And its been featured on, as of the airing tomorrow, two different Focus on the Family broadcasts (Cooking for the Busy Family I and II).
We remember the early days when we used to have to confirm what each was wearing for an appointment because we happened to own identical skirts and were afraid we’d show up looking like the Bobsey Twins.
Two things stand out: The joy and privilege of producing a resource that has helped thousands of families connect around a table. And the fun of sharing the ups and downs as great friends.
One of my favorite stories comes from a summer the Wilsons spent in Peru. Mimi’s husband Calvin, a family practice physician, participated in a medical team that trekked into the jungle to treat a people group dying from their first-ever exposure to pneumonia. The team stayed in the jungle longer than anticipated, and was running out of food. Mimi took frozen entrees (naturally she had done once-a-month cooking in Peru), packaged in Tupperware, and wrapped in newspapers, to a nearby airstrip. The pilot flew over the team’s campsite in the jungle and dropped the entrees to them. We call this episode “Bombs Away.”
One time while Cal and Mimi lived in Quito, Ecuador, I visited them and we spent a weekend in a hacienda in the Andes to work on a sequel book, Table Talk. Ah, the writing life!
Perhaps someone out there still has the very, very first edition with a copyright of 1982. I won’t give away its title, except to say it was not titled Once-a-Month Cooking. If you have one, and can provide proof (it’s title and the name of the first actual recipe in the book), Mimi and I would love to send you a copy of the latest edition. We’ll send copies to the first five people who respond with the accurate information.
Wishing you great table times.
Mary Beth
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