Hey Amy!

If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.  If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy.  Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with.  Where there are various languages, they will cease.  Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.  When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child.  Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.  But now faith, hope, and love remain–these three.  The greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13

Happy St. Valentines Day.

xo–me

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Every year so many of you run around buying fancy gifts, making dinner reservations and even comissioning paintings (yes, guilty as charged).  I realized a few years ago all I wanted was words.  I wanted a valentine.  A simple card with a few words inside that told of the love felt for me.  It did not have to come from a store, it did not have to sing.  It just simply had to say the words in the heart of the giver.  I felt this way about my lover but also my mother and my friends.  All I ever wanted and still want is a simple valentine that can just say “Be Mine”.

So today, the day before St. Valentine’s Day, sit down and compose what lives in your heart.  This ‘holiday’ doesn’t have to be about spending money on things that will fade away.  It can be the one day out of the year you pause and express yourself.

xo–me

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All of you are aware that St. Valentine’s Day is Sunday (and those that pretend they ‘forgot’ are usually the cheap humans who don’t want to spend a dollar on a valentine).  Every year I try to find something new and sweet to send to those I love.  Not just my partner in crime (he gets treats all year) but also to my dear girlfriends, my mom, and the other ladies of my family.  I thought this week I will share my favorite ideas, recipes and ‘finds’ as we countdown the day to excitement, anticipation and unfortunately for some, disappointment.

For the sake of ordering and delivery time, today I am featuring my favorite sites from which you can order a treat (and most have all levels of financial commitment).  In no particular order…

Fat Witch Babies–Fat Witch is a great bakery in Chelsea.  I have been ordering her babies (a small petite bite-size brownie) for several years prior to making NY my home.   Each are $1.50 and you can put together a lovely assortment and ship for right around $20.

Good Karmal–Enjoy the most delicious candy caramel with a Valentine’s sample for only $10.  Each piece of caramel is wrapped in a “fortune” inscribed with a quote of wise words from sages ranging from Gandhi to Maya Angelou.

Zoe’s Chocolates–Zoe’s offers their heavenly traditional chocolates in several special packages for the lover in you.  Lot’s of choices for less than $20.

Cookie Sandwich Company–These sandwich cookies are truly the size of sliders.  They are sandwiches!  I have been able to soften the hardest individuals with these cookies.  They have a special cookie for Valentine’s with a strawberry filling.  You cannot go wrong here.

I would be overjoyed to be the recipient of any of these specialty items.  You will feel the same sending them.  Get off the site now and go place your orders in order to get the most reasonable shipping charges.

xo–me

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Today I am sharing Mommie’s quickest meal. It also is her favorite. Pick up the phone and order take out!

Seriously Mom is not the biggest woman in the kitchen but she is in every other arena of life. She raised two kids on her own with a modest income. We never knew the struggles she had privately. We thought it was fun to have a wood stove heat the house instead of firing up the furnace in the dead of winter. She made everything fun. We had great birthday parties and the best book bags in which to begin the school year. There was nothing we went without. We had everything we believed as children to be important, everything we ever asked for but most of all we had laughter and love.

She is truly a special woman in a sea of not so special. She gives without boundaries and loves without reason. She is the most thoughtful person I know. One year she discovered a waitress at a pizza joint she frequented had never known her father. He was an officer in the military and stationed in the waitress’s country (this woman was from a Caribbean island). Her mother and father had a love affair and he was shipped out to another nation before knowing the mother was pregnant. For whatever reason, the father never knew his daughter. She had since immigrated to our country and our little town. She shared her story with mom and my mother realized this father lived in a town near my step-father’s family in England. Not here in the states but in England. My mother spent her next trip researching and finding this girls father. I am sure by now you have figured out the rest of the story. She connected these two strangers and gave them one of the greatest moments in their lives. That’s my mom.

And I am proud to be her daughter.

Happy Birthday Mommie!

xo–me

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Hello Loveys.  I am sorry I have been MIA for the last week.  As I have hinted around for weeks, my day job has changed and I made the jaunt from Los Angeles to New York.  Last week was spent packing, moving, painting, doing and undoing every layer of my life.  I am here in NYC creating a new chapter in my life and discovering so many delicious restaurants.  I am also discovering the frigid air here.  And it’s snowed twice!  So my salute this week is to the snow.  I hope you love these recipes Aunt Barb shared with me that show a love of snow.

xo–me

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Merry Christmas! Every year at Christmas I recall a lot of fond memories like most of you. I think of our gorgeous town square with the tree in the center of the intersection. I think of Christmas Eve at Nany & Pappy’s house and begging Mom to let Garnet and I open a gift while the adults went to candlelight service. I recall Dad setting up the platform for the tree with the train running through the various areas of the town–the church, the ice skating pond, the railroad crossing with cars and lights that actually worked. He really put a lot of work into it.

But the story that always has the strongest memories for me is the story of Santa Claus. Not just any Santa but my Santa. He sat in the same square as the tree in what resembled an out house now that I am a grown woman. It was painted red with white trim and sat next to the First National Bank. I never thought about it as a child but that small house had no heat! Santa sat in there all night from 5–9P waiting for kids to come sit on his lap and tell him what we wanted for Christmas. He was a great Santa. He listened and laughed and hoisted you right up on his lap. He looked into your eyes and listened. He really listened. I remember his beard was so white and fluffy. His eyes so clear. He always ended with “Amy, have you been a good girl?” I was shocked and overjoyed he knew my name and remembered each year. I will never forget those eyes.

Years later, when I was a teenager, my mother asked me to drop off Christmas cookies for a family friend who was dying. Mom didn’t say he was. She said he was sick but I knew he was dying when he answered the door and appeared very very frail and thin. I was sad. My father had been friends with him for years. They served together in the volunteer fire department. I told him who I was through the barely opened door as I had not seen him for a couple of years and I had grown up a good bit since the last time he had seen me. He then took off the chain and allowed the door to open. As I stepped towards him to hand him the package of cookies, I looked up in those eyes. Those Santa Claus eyes and was immediately taken back to my childhood. Here I was standing before Santa. The man I believed was responsible for Lazy Daisy, the Sunshine Family, and Mrs. Beasley. I remembered how he smelled. How he gave me a lollipop after I told him what I wanted for Christmas. How he made me feel so important and special every year he would pull me to his lap.

I didn’t know what to say to him. I was shocked, saddened and very awkward. I was a teenager. That was 29 years ago and to this day, a Christmas does not pass without me remembering the day I discovered Mr.Luckett was Santa as well as recalling all the wonderful memories he gave me while being Santa.

Merry Christmas Santa Claus.

xo–me

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It’s Christmas Eve.  Many of you are running around today getting those last minute food items for the big meal.  Some of you will bake today in preparation for tomorrow and the days to come of gift giving and fellowship.  For those who are in the kitchen, take an extra 20 minutes and make an additional batch of cookies.  Wrap them up nicely (nothing too fancy, am not trying to make more work for you) and give them to an unsuspecting neighbor.  Maybe it’s a shut-in who has no one who comes to visit.  Or perhaps it’s the woman down the street who is single with a brood of kids and is grossly overworked.  Or it could be someone who has done so many lovely things for you and you wish to say thanks.  I love doing this and putting a note that says “Merry Christmas.  Love, Santa” and giving anonymously.  For what you are really giving is love–something everyone needs and so few really have.  This year, give love.

xo–me

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