Listen, I understand if you don't want to see cottage cheese and cookies in the same sentence. You think I'm crazy. You think I'm one of those people who like canned pineapple and cinnamon in their cottage cheese, which in my opinion is right up there with other questionable behaviors like wearing sneakers with jeans and putting tiny rain boots on your dog.
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Happiness is a warm, exhilarating feeling. And being happy because of someone else is even more thrilling: a lightness like you're a balloon buoyed up with air. It's out of your control -- which can be scary and leave you reeling, or amplify your happiness beyond a factor you yourself could achieve.
Being happy like that feels like driving at night up a long stretch of road and hitting every green light, one after another after another. Like walking into the subway station just as the train pulls up. It's Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" and Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" coming on the radio. Flipping your pillow onto the cool side in the middle of the night. A drink of cold water when you're incredibly thirsty.
Read moreCRANBERRY WALNUT CAKE
When I'm home on the farm, I like to take a walk around our three ponds once the sun sets. From afar, the lights of the house are ablaze, standing out like a beacon in the acres of darkness.
I stomp the mud from my boots, open the kitchen door, and warm, sugar-scented air wafts towards me. Two of my sisters are making linzer cookies, one of my dad’s favorites. There’s an open bag of flour on the marble counter. Powdered sugar spills out of its box, a batter-coated spatula is propped up on a mixing bowl, and scraps of cookie dough are strewn around.
Read moreTHE BEST ALMOND FINANCIERS
Currently: listening to Etta James on stereo. Wearing a soft, oversized men’s J. Crew sweater in dark hunter green and obscenely comfortable sweatpants. Battling a headache, wondering: Would a glass of wine help or hurt? When the doctor said 'Advil', did he maybe mean to say 'Argentinian red'?
Never mind that. I’m going to put my feet up and pretend this entire city doesn’t exist. Some days I like to do that, between you and me, it’s a fun little trick, no losing our patience here! Just ignore it all!
Read moreALMOND COCONUT SWEET ROLLS
This week: what sadness. Walking down the street on Friday night after watching the news, everything appeared out of place. Even my neighborhood looked strange. I felt disoriented and unmoored. When news like this hits, the abstract things you rely on—safety, order, logic—aren’t there when you reach out for them.
In these moments, it feels inappropriate to seek out joy. Reveling in the taste of buttercream frosting on moist cake, taking a photo of a warm loaf of bread, or discussing a recipe seems frivolous, unbefitting of the solemnity of the world.
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