Alright… here goes nothing!
From the time I was in middle school, baking has always been a comfort to me, as it is to so many people. The smell of chocolate cake baking is one of the simplest pleasures in life, it is something that is comfortable and reminds me of home. Food has a way of connecting us with the people and places who are far away and dearly loved.
Food is my way of staying connected with my family in the Chicago suburbs as I make my life in the South Bay, just outside of Los Angeles, CA. When I get homesick I often make my grandmother’s brisket or my mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Of course, everyone thinks their grandma makes the best brisket and their mom, the best chocolate chip cookies.That very well may be true, but mine hold a special place in my heart not just for the food, but for the people.
As we are all in this time of social distancing from the ones we love, food keeps me going. Food keeps my family close while they are not able to visit. It’s my mom on facetime across the kitchen table in my obnoxiously yellow (and tiny) kitchen in Redondo Beach or hearing my grandma’s voice in the back of my head telling me not to put sprinkles in her (really, Ina Garten’s) Macaroon recipe.
Join me on this journey of trial and error as I test and create new recipes for what will (hopefully) be a finished cookbook that merges a sense of the midwestern home I loved growing up in with my new home in Southern California.
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