Sometimes you just need to accept a gift gracefully….

I’ve blogged about my soon to be ninety four-year old neighbor before.  The woman is a whirlwind, she can work circles around me, and is a world class cook with as many, if not more, kitchen gadgets than yours truly.  She’s the one that gave me the fabulous recipe for German Potato Salad that I posted on Jan CAN Cook.

Something happened to my bundt pan, I suspect it’s at one of my son’s houses, but for the past couple of years I haven’t had one or replaced it, I just use my neighbors.  She has three bundt pans, but she always gives me the old, heavy aluminum one that bakes to perfection.  I’ve borrowed it countless times, always returning it with some home baked goodie that makes her eyes sparkle, and she always tells me to just keep it, but I never could do that, well, not until yesterday.

I had borrowed the bundt pan once again to make my yummy Lemon Cake Supreme, and hubby took it back with a plate of granola bars fresh from the oven.  She absolutely, positively refused to take it, telling him that she never bakes anymore and she wanted me to have it.  So he came home with it tucked under his arm, shaking his head because he couldn’t dissuade her.

And you know what, I’m keeping it.  It’s a wonderful pan, something that I obviously can’t duplicate with a new one, I’ve tried, and none of them are as heavy as hers, and she obviously wants me to have it, so I decided that sometimes you just have to write a nice thank you note, and accept a gift in the spirit it is given.  I’ll always think of her when I use it, it’s such a workhouse of a pan, it will never wear out.  She’s had it forever and now it sits on my shelf, waiting until the baking urge strikes me and I need to bake in a bundt pan again.  I’ll continue to share my baked goodies, and watch her eyes sparkle, and it will work for both of us.  It’s a good thing…

~ Jan, smiling today…