“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

It’s a phrase we all remember from years past. Don’t get me wrong, lemonade is wonderful on a hot summer day, but I think the phrase could use a little updating.

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I adore my small-town Vermont life, I really do. Every week, every season has some special occasion or event that reminds me of how nice it is to live where just like that famous fictional Boston bar, “everybody knows your name.”

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I cannot tell a lie… I really love cherries. Sweet cherries, tart cherries, candied or covered in chocolate. OH yum!

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My introduction to pie – lo, these many years ago – was the venerable Table Talk strawberry-rhubarb pie.

As kids, we’d hoard our pennies and nickels for trips to the local luncheonette.

Arguably, these are two archaic customs: hoarding pennies, and luncheonettes. But stay with me here; we’re about to take a journey into a long-ago past with which I’m sure, dear readers, many of you are familiar… (more…)

“PJ, you need to decorate some fancy cupcakes for a Valentine’s blog post.”

ARGHHHH! Those two little words I (don’t) long to hear–

“Decorate.” “Fancy.”

I immediately go into whine mode.

“Can’t MaryJane do it? She’s SUCH an artist, so good at all that… stuff.”

All that picky, intricate, delicate, SUPREMELY IRRITATING DECORATING STUFF.

For which I have all the patience of a 4-year-old at a birthday party…

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Don’t you love it when you find a recipe that does just exactly what you want it to?

I was looking for a good bake sale recipe recently. You know, something fast and easy, something “grab & go” (no wrapping required); something tasty, relatively inexpensive to make… and chocolate.

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It’s that time of year again: the holiday season, those four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas when peppermint joins chocolate center stage.

At heart, I’m a chocolate traditionalist. Not for me chocolate/orange, chocolate/raspberry, or chocolate/any other fruit combo, thanks very much. I’ll take my chocolate dark and plain.

OK, I do make exceptions. Chocolate-dipped strawberries… plump dried apricots half-coated in dark chocolate… even chocolate cherry cordials, with their sticky liquid dripping off your fingers – all good.

And chocolate/coffee – more than good. Exquisite.

But chocolate cake with Grand Marnier frosting? No thanks.

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Do you remember your 10th birthday?

Big day, right? At last – double digits!

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Sometime around August, we were planning our holiday email schedule.

Tracy:  What should we email on Friday, December 11?  It’s right after our free shipping offer, so maybe a 3-recipes campaign?

Me:  That’s the first night of Hanukkah!

PJ:  (silence)

We all understand the silence… none of us can forget the famous flourless chocolate cake that she blogged for Passover, or the No-Knead Challah for Rosh Hashanah. PJ, born and raised Catholic, has  eagerly researched traditional Jewish holiday foods for our blog.  But try as she may, there’s always something that’s not “kosher.”  So, this time I volunteered – after all, I’m Jewish, and I’m the one who’s always requesting these recipes. (more…)