The Silver Lining

So here it is.  The last day of 2016.    Hallelujah!! By all accounts, it has been a tough year for a lot of people.   The election brought out the absolute worst in people; I remain shell-shocked at the hatred and bigotry that I see so flagrantly exhibited in our country. Many beloved heroes, celebrities, and athletes left us:  David Bowie, Arnold Palmer, John Glenn, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Harper Lee, Pat Conroy, Nancy Reagan, Mohammed Ali, Merle Haggard, Elie Weisel, Florence Henderson – just to name a tiny handful.  This short list alone contains people who wrote amazing books I read, acted on screens large or small that I watched with rapt attention, or sang songs that are part of the soundtrack of my life.  I vividly remember being 5 years old and watching John Glenn “splash down” on our old black and white television.  I also remember learning about integrity as I watched Moh...

When I was a very young bride in 1975, my mother gave me a treasure box full of gold. Actually, it was a small metal box full of recipes, neatly typed on 3x5 index cards.  The box was full of family favorites, foods I had grown up enjoying.  On the back of several of the recipes, she had hand-written special memories and stories about particular dishes – which made them even more valuable to me.  Some were familiar tales that I’d heard before, some notes told me the origin of the recipe or who had first made and shared the dish, and one was a secret that made me laugh (and I’ve never told)! In the back of the box I found 3 cards clipped together – my grandma Belle’s Fruitcake Recipe. Every Christmas in my memory, there’s been a homemade fruitcake on the table.  It’s one of the traditions that I hold dear.  Dense with chopped fruits and nuts, rich with homemade ingredients like apple jelly and fig preserves, and thoroughly soaked with Belle’s homemad...