One of the books that really affected me in high school was Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I’ve since reread pieces of it and it surprises me how intense it is: violent and brash and deeply spiritual in a way that almost feels dark. But I can still understand why it moved me so—not unlike many formative experiences around that age, it was the newness of it, the way it simultaneously cracked open my world to become wider and spoke to something deeply familiar within me.
Read moreMINI CHOCOLATE MARCONA ALMOND WHOOPIE PIES
Could I chart my life in chocolate? Probably. You could too, I’m guessing.
Second grade: Sifting through the shiny pile of miniature candy bars I’ve spilled out onto the carpet after a few hours of trick-or-treating in the frigid October air. The nubby multicolored rag carpet is soft under my knees and there’s a fire blazing cozily in the living room where all the parents sit together. My sisters and I are engaged in fierce, sugar-fueled negotiations with the other kids—three Mounds bar for one Twix; two Kit Kats for two Crunch bars; five Almond Joys and two Butterfingers and a box of Milk Duds for a single king-sized Snickers.
Read moreMARBLE LOAF CAKE
Although I’m here today talking about cake, it doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about The State of the World—because of course I am, just like you are, because how could you not? Since this entire %#!*#$! year began (to borrow some lingo from an Archie comic as it were as I am a delicate, ladylike flower and prefer not to let loose a stream of real expletives here) I’ve been constantly recalibrating and readjusting my ability and desire to interface with the world at large.
Read morePOTATO CHIP PRETZEL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Am I the only person who didn’t love—or is not really into talking about—Normal People? I’m referring to the book primarily, but also the television show. Surprisingly, as I love a good Irish accent as much as the next girl, I just wasn’t captivated by the show. (Granted I only made it through 10 minutes, but still. Ten minutes of TV watching in parent-of-a-baby time is like 3 hours in regular people time.)
Read moreVANILLA CRÈME FRAÎCHE BANANA BREAD
At my first job out of college, a guy on my team used to eat the exact same lunch every single day. (Okay technically it was my second job—but the real first lasted a whopping 5 days that flew by in a whirl of tailored pencil skirts with stilettos, mergers & acquisitions trainings, mind-numbing Excel spreadsheet manipulation, Seamless-ordered dinners with beers enjoyed in an airless cubicle, and deeply existential misery as to my life’s path: a story for another time!)
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