By Eight weeks. December and Ida first Christmas coming. I am back to cooking now, properly cooking, not just defrosting. The body has reclaimed itself and the kitchen feels like mine again and I made a full Sunday spread this week for the first time in two months. I made it alone because Tyler was at Debbie and Destiny was at school and Gloria was in her chair and Ida was sleeping and the kitchen was mine and I stood in it and made everything and felt like myself in a way I had briefly not felt like myself and the return to that feeling is its own form of relief.
Gloria watched me cook from her chair and directed nothing. Zero corrections. That has been happening more. I do not know if it is because I have gotten good enough that there is nothing to correct or because she is conserving her energy. I suspect both. I said nothing about it. She is seventy-two. She is entitled to direct as much or as little as she wants and to decide when the student has learned enough to trust.
Ida is awake more now. She watches the ceiling fan with profound attention. She watches Tyler face when he talks to her with the same attention. She is building understanding. She is taking in everything and will not be able to tell us what she learned until she has words and by then she will have forgotten the early learning and only have the knowledge. That is how we all work. We learn before we can know we are learning.
The small Bright Beginnings Daycare in the small downtown Prattville is the small workplace. The small toddler-room teacher role (ages 18-36 months). The small daycare-worker-salary plus the small fiancé-Cole’s small carpenter-paycheck is the small two-income engaged-couple budget. The small wedding-saving has been the small two-year-project.
Tyler Clarke (the small fiancé, 29, diesel-mechanic-from-Millbrook) works at a small trucking-company. The small wedding is planned for October 2026 with Gloria walking Savannah down the aisle. The small marriage will be the small first-stable-adult-relationship Savannah has had. The small foster-care upbringing means the small family-of-origin had been the small unstable-shape.
The small foster-care-history: Savannah went into the small Alabama-foster-care system at age six after the small mother’s incarceration and the small father’s absence. The small seven-foster-placements between infancy and age sixteen. The small last placement (Gloria and James Martin in Prattville, who became the small forever-parents) since age fourteen. The small Martin-foster-parents continued to be the small only-parents until James died in 2024 at 77 from a heart-attack mowing the lawn.
The small self-taught-Southern-cooking is the small kitchen-identity. The small no-grandmother-recipes-passed-down meant the small YouTube-and-cookbook-self-teaching from age sixteen onward. The small fried chicken, the small biscuits, the small mac-and-cheese, the small banana pudding, the small sweet tea are the small staples.
The small Gloria-Martin kitchen-mentorship (Gloria is the small foster-mom-now-mom) has been the small adult-cooking-development since the small fourteen-year-old. The small Gloria-Sunday-dinners-with-Savannah-cooking-now are the small weekly-rhythm since James passed. The small Gloria-recipes (Black-Southern-comfort-food the small chain of Gloria’s mother and grandmother) are the small heritage-by-adoption.
The small Prattville-small-town-community is the small social-context. The small First Baptist Church congregation is the small church-family. The small daycare-coworkers are the small adjacent-friend-network. The small Martin-family (Gloria, James who passed in 2024, plus the small current-foster-child Destiny age 6 in Gloria’s care) is the small chosen-family. The small Tyler’s-family-in-Millbrook (Debbie, Roy, and four-brothers) is the small in-law-family.
The Sunday spread I made that morning was not fancy — it was just mine, start to finish, with nobody directing and nobody needing anything from me for those few hours. The ham was the anchor of the whole table, and this cherry sauce is what I spooned over it: sweet and a little sharp, the kind of thing Gloria’s recipes taught me belongs at a proper Sunday dinner. It felt right to make something that looked like it came from somewhere, from a tradition, even if I had to build my traditions from scratch.
Cherry Sauce for Ham
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 can (16 oz) pitted dark sweet cherries in juice
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Drain the cherries. Pour the canned cherries into a fine-mesh strainer set over a small saucepan. Reserve all of the juice in the pan; set the cherries aside.
- Build the base. Add the brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, ground cloves, cinnamon, and salt to the saucepan with the cherry juice. Stir to combine. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
- Thicken the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cold water until smooth. Pour the slurry into the simmering sauce while stirring constantly. Continue to cook and stir for 2—3 minutes, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Add the cherries. Stir the reserved cherries into the thickened sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3—4 more minutes, gently pressing a few cherries against the side of the pan to break them down slightly into the sauce.
- Serve warm. Spoon the cherry sauce generously over sliced ham on a platter. The sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead and rewarmed gently on the stovetop over low heat.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 95 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 45mg