I adore the delicate, buttery taste of shortbread cookies. My favorites are the Royal Shortbread cookies which are handsomely dipped in milk chocolate on one end. Up until a few years ago, I had never bothered to bake any version. Sadly, I had only purchased them in stores around holiday time. For me, it had always been easier to pick up a beautifully-wrapped tin full of these treats, only to hand them over as a holiday gift for my kids' teachers. Cornucopia of holiday cookie tins So, what got me out of my 30 year baking hibernation this … [Read more...]
Teaching Your Kids to Make Lemonade from Lemons
June 22, 2011 By 6 Comments
"You only live once, but, if you do it right, once is enough"- Mae West. This past weekend we traveled to Baltimore for Father’s Day. It’s the only weekend this entire summer we’ll be in town so inevitably every second is mapped out. That’s one of the challenges with marrying your high-school sweetheart—we’re constantly shuttling ourselves between two sets of families (who live 5 miles apart) trying to play fair to both. Over the years things have gotten much better. We no longer switch between houses each night. We unload our bags and … [Read more...]
Judy’s Earthquake Cookies: They’ll Make You Tremble
June 13, 2011 By 34 Comments
Two months ago we learned that we had to travel to Baltimore for a funeral of a great-grandmother. Talking about death with my kids is like pulling the scabs off wounds--they immediately bring the conversation back to my mom’s death. They still can’t really understand why she had to die so young. However, that made it easier to then turn the conversation around and talk about their great grandmother's full life. Remarkably, she left a family legacy of 10 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. To brighten the mood and change the … [Read more...]
