Dessert
Week 51: Santa Goes Vegan and Yuletide Gelatin
For the month of December, I thought 52 Saturdays would be jam-packed with Christmas cookies, sweets, breads, festive menu items, and beverages—but, life had a different plan… My Christmas kind of imploded! I’m sad. I don’t want to make Christmas cookies for myself. I don’t want to make Christmas cookies for others. I don’t even […]
Week 50: There Once Was a Gingerbread Village
I really wanted to make gingerbread cookies this week. I bought all of the ingredients, but I’m having some issues with my stomach and the thought of researching recipes and baking literally resulted in nausea. I also have an earlier deadline this week, which meant that waiting for my stomach to settle and trying to […]
Week 38 : Preppy Apple Cake
As a New England academic and Sacred Heart School alumni, Mom was a big fan of private schools; in fact, my sister Kristin graduated from a Sacred Heart school. My sister Kim (who is another long story for another time) went to a private school, but mostly because my mom was desperately trying to figure […]
Week 37: There Is Always Chocolate
My mother, Suzanne Devine, had a razor-sharp tongue. When she was impassioned or provoked to anger, she could hit below the belt like nothing I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, this week I took after my mother in that respect, and said mean things to someone I care about. I’m mortified! Hopefully, someday the victim of my […]
Week 33: Ice Cream Sprinkled with Forgiveness
Tragic world events that are heartbreaking, frightening and infuriating; difficult personal challenges; memories of childhood pain and loss; and 32 weeks of feeling connected to my mom whose birthday was this week, has left me feeling a bit more emotional than usual. The morning of her birthday—Tuesday, August 15th—I decided to devote more time to […]
Week 29: Maine, Chocolate and a Mystery
A few months before my mom died, she sent Kara a gift—an author signed book titled Miss Rumphius—to celebrate her 5th birthday. As I’ve mentioned before, my mother valued words, reading, and books above most things, therefore most gifts given to my kids were books. At that time, she was living in subsidized housing in New […]
Week 21: Nana Loves Chocolate Fondue and YOU
Meet my grandson! I have no words to describe what I’m feeling! He’s adorable and delicious (isn’t it odd that we use cannibalistic terms like yummy and delicious when we discuss babies?), My daughter is a brave warrior goddess and her partner was amazing! I couldn’t be happier… my heart is exploding! After 48 […]
Week 17: The Crazy Cake Cure
Cake is the ultimate problem solver. Or so I thought when I was a kid. I was eight when I baked my first cake for my mom to cheer her up, using a recipe from my Betty Crocker Cookbook for Kids. I followed the directions to a T (unlike the way I cook now). When […]
Week 7: The Perfect Vegan Kiss
I don’t know which came first, the depression or the weight gain. But I suspect the two were deeply intertwined. As a child, I didn’t recognize my mom’s moods as depression, nor was she ever officially diagnosed to my knowledge. But as an adult looking back, I’ve figured out that my mother likely had some […]
Week 5: Put the Lime in the Coconut Margarita Cream
According to Wikipedia disordered eating describes a variety of abnormal eating behaviors that, by themselves, do not warrant a diagnosis of an eating disorder. Disordered eating includes behaviors that are common features of eating disorders such as: chronic restraint eating. Compulsive eating. Binge eating, with associated loss of control. I’ve been reading a lot about […]