1. Always be ready to cook for one (or a few) more
I do not remember when it started, but it seemed that our home was always the place where uncles, aunties, and cousins gathered on Sundays — especially on the Sundays when my gradmother decided to go to church. These spontaneous visits were always welcomed by a mother of five wearing a blue apron, greeting her guests and dashing off to the kitchen to add more water and potatoes to her Caldo Verde.
Mum would scan the fridge looking for vegetables she could use to turn the chicken she was about to roast into a chicken stew. If there were not enough potatoes, she would add some good old toasted homemade bread, place it gently on the bottom of a tray, cover it with the stew, stick it in the oven and call it ensopado de frango.