一如正離子和負離子相輔相成，不善烹飪的我和如同美食家的她，在試做與試吃之間，也漸漸達成了某種平衡。

By Joan Donaldson

星靨 選注

Following my sophomore year of college, an older woman hired me to be a housekeeper at her summer cottage on Lake Michigan.[1] Miss Bartow had been one of the first American women to earn a doctorate in chemistry and had taught that subject at the University of Illinois. Every summer she traveled north to Michigan.

While studying for final exams, I daydreamed about her private beach, until suddenly other thoughts rippled[2] through my mind. Housekeepers must cook; Miss Bartow would expect me to produce three meals a day. I scribbled a note to her explaining that I only knew how to make pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, and grilled cheese sandwiches, but I would try to cook what she liked.[3]

Miss Bartow wrote back, “You’re a geologist[4]; cooking is like chemistry.”

Mostly what I could remember from geochemistry was how ions shared their electrical charges in order to create stable situations.[5] While writing out the chemical formula for the mineral pyrite (FeS2), my professor had pointed out that when the iron and sulfur bonded, their charges balanced each other.[6]

I felt like a negative ion desperately seeking a positive ion.[7] But too soon, the big day came, and I moved to the cottage.

Miss Bartow handed me The Joy of Cooking. “Study this, and you’ll learn to cook.”

Sitting on my beach towel, I read her cookbook, but the mass of recipes was overwhelming and the symbols confusing.[8] Even worse, to create a dish, such as cabbage rolls, I had to flip to various sections in order to reference the techniques necessary.[9]

I stared at the waves. I needed easy recipes for main dishes, and I needed them now.

I called my mother. “Could you please send me some simple recipes, and could you please ask the women at church for some, too?”

Throughout my childhood, a cluster of surrogate aunts from my church had nurtured me.[10] Mary DeBuck had introduced me to quilting[11]. While cleaning up after church suppers, Mrs. Stankowitz had listened to me ramble on[12] about school, and Mrs. Carlson had encouraged me to write. Mrs. Means had even accompanied our youth group on a work camp to a Navajo reservation and had spread her sleeping bag among our gaggle of teenage girls.[13] Like my parents, these women wanted me to succeed in life.

My mother sent a stash[14] of recipe cards, and letters from her women friends arrived. Sometimes I had to copy handwritten recipes into my new notebook. Some people sent recipes clipped from magazines that featured “cooking for two.”

I tried Peg Bullock’s chicken casserole[15] and re-created my mother’s potato salad. I kept reading and experimenting. Miss Bartow never complained. I suppose it was because she had taught undergraduates for decades. She was used to being patient.

One August evening, I placed a small salmon pie[16] in front of her. Steam rose from the biscuit topping, and the white sauce oozed over the glass dish.[17] Miss Bartow sniffed[18]. The air smelled of celery and butter.

“One of my favorite dishes! from The Joy of Cooking,”she said.

“Page 241,” I chirped, and buttered a biscuit.[19]

Miss Bartow was right. Cooking was like chemistry, and thankfully the women of my church had provided a diligent undergrad with the necessary resources to successfully balance the culinary equation.[20]

Vocabulary

1. sophomore: 大學二年級；housekeeper: 女管家；cottage: 小別墅；Lake Michigan: 密歇根湖，北美洲五大湖之一。

2. ripple: 感覺等擴散。

3. 我草草寫下一個紙條，向她解釋我只會做烙餅、巧克力奇普餅和烤奶酪三明治，但我會盡量做她喜歡的。

4. geologist: 地質學家。

5. 我能記得的地球化學主要就是離子如何共享其電荷以創造其穩定位置的。

6.在寫出礦物黃鐵礦（二硫化亞鐵）的化學公式時，我的教授就指出：當離子和硫磺相結合時，它們的電荷會彼此達成平衡。

7. 我覺得自己就像一個正在拼命尋找正離子的負離子。

8. recipe: 菜譜；confusing: 令人迷惑的。

9. 更糟糕的是，為了做一道菜，譬如甘藍卷，我不得不翻查該書的多個地方以參考必要的技術。

10. surrogate: 代理人，代用品；nurture: 養育，照顧。

11. quilt: v. 縫被子。

12. ramble on: 閑聊，漫談。

13. Navajo reservation: 瓦侯保護區，瓦侯族人口約25萬，維持著放牧的生活方式，是目前美國殘余印地安人中最大的一族；gaggle: 〈口〉散亂的一群。

14. stash: 儲存。

15. casserole: 焙盤菜，砂鍋菜。

16. salmon pie：鮭魚派。

17. 蒸汽從松餅頂端冒出來，還有白色的醬汁從玻璃餐盤中溢出來。Ooze: （濃液等）緩緩流出，滲出。

18. sniff: 以鼻吸氣，嗅。

19. chirp: 尖聲地說，嘖嘖咂嘴；butter: 抹黃油于……上。

20. diligent: 勤奮的；undergrad: 〈口〉大學肄業生，（尚未取得學位的）大學生；culinary equation: 烹飪方程式。

（來源：英語學習雜志 編輯：丹妮）