2 . My mother used to say that when your mother was really good at something, you didn’t learn to do it. What she said was ________. My grandmother was skilled in baking and cooking, but my mother was a barely ________ cook for our family of seven. We didn’t ________; we had meat, potatoes and another vegetable at every meal out of a can.

Baking was not Mom’s ________, so on Saturday mornings, she would ________ us to the bakery for fresh cake. Mom did learn to make the ________ Dad loved — bacon and eggs, spare ribs (排骨) and, ________, potato salad. Potato salad was my mom’s major ________ to every summer, ________ eating such a dish on a hot July day wasn’t a good idea. Mayonnaise (蛋黄酱) in it could be difficult to ________ and you might have to go to the bathroom frequently.

Case in point: the time my uncle and aunt and their six kids ________ at the lake with us. The ________ included burgers, burnt or slightly raw, lots of pop, and Mom’s potato salad. We spent hours at the lake. Unfortunately, so did the salad.

________, I realize that polishing off Mom’s potato salad may have been the reason that Dad finally built us a second bathroom, which ________ that everything can have a bright side. My mother didn’t ________ in the kitchen, but I miss her cooking so much.

3 . Losing someone you love is never easy. But having to say goodbye to her mother during the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), Debbie Money found a ________ way to remember her mum.

Debbie remembers the joy with which her mother discussed the ________ from West Africa, their homeland, to London. Mother was a great woman, and her attitude to life was ________ in her cooking. When Debbie’s husband was ill, before losing his ________ with cancer, Debbie and her mother cooked meals for him. They cooked and talked together. Sometimes Debbie felt she could not ________. It was her mother who ________ her, and now that mother has ________ the world, Debbie is able to feel close to her in ________ her food.

Now the community has a program. It starts with about 20 couples ________ in. Four will do starters, then they go somewhere else for a main dinner and it changes from group to group. Everyone is ________ so they can ________ different dinners. Living in a ________ community, Debbie is eager to try this out.

Despite her ________, Debbie is still ________ about herself and at times finds herself wanting to ________ the phone and ask her mother for information and support.

But, everything she is cooking is from her mother, as is the ________ sense of achievement she feels. When she began cooking with her mother as a ________，she was in charge of turning on and off the stove, to stop it ________ the food. Now she is ________ the spoon, adding the seasonings and still looking up from the ________ to her mum.