happy birthday mom!

we love you & wish you were here to celebrate your 60th! ( :

remembering recipes.

lil sis' new discovery has been evernote, the online fileroom. today she sent me this amazing recipe that i remember my gma making for us on the one occasion she actually came to our house.

cinnamon-layered quick coffeecake

ingredients:

• 1 & 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter (i use smart balance 50/50)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 pint sour cream

directions:

• preheat oven to 350 degrees
• mix & set aside 1/2 cup sugar, nuts, & cinnamon.
• cream the butter, beating in 1 cup remaining sugar, eggs, vanilla, & lemon juice
• in a seperate bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
• slowly add to the butter mixture with the sour cream
• pour half of the batter into a greased 9x9 (or 8x8) inch pan
• sprinkle with some of the cinnamon mixture & add remaining batter
• top with remaining cinnamon mixture
• bake for 40 minutes

update 5/27: i made these for some guys i work with and it was DEVOURED instantly... if only they knew how easy it was to make! ( :

daily reminders.

wow. robert guest's sampling of some of the thousands of letters he wrote to his two children, joanna & theo each day in their lunchbox is nearly tear jerking. i was at sister's apartment helping her & her artsy self research & brainstorm for an upcoming research project. her apartment, may i add, could be a college-age version of design*sponge, with homemade decorations that could easily pass for professional; quite the blooming artist. she had the current issue of esopus magazine (spring 2008) and i was flipping though. guest's advice is real and simple, yet profound. i hope i can have, much less impart, just a smidgen of his wisdom.
a few of my favourites:

thursday 11.14.96 joanna:
every day i try to say "i love you"
love is not easy (sometimes)
you love me even though i can make you mad (sometimes)
love isn't like the water faucet - you don't turn it on and off
love is constant, moves with our lives, changes as we change, never dies
dad
ps. you don't have to say "i love you" for me to know you do! (but it feels so good when you do!)

thursday 10.11.01 joanna:
today is the one month anniversary of the attack on the world trade towers. one month is not a very long time in the big scheme of things, but it still seems like it happened a million years ago. so much of our lives have changed in so many ways in such a short time. not just for us personally but for the whole country. it's a time to rebuild a time to examine ourselves - all of us - to see who we are - what do we do to make the world a better place? what do we do to spread love within our family, with our friends, with strangers we meet on the street, with people who feel and act differently than we feel or act? it would be a mistake to believe that we, as individuals, can do nothing to change the world. believe in the power of love! dad.

friday 12.19.03 joanna:
coffee tastes good in the morning. it smells like "morning" time. so does cooking bacon and toast and eggs. it all makes me think of breakfast. and breakfast makes me think of sitting here and writing morning notes like i've done for years now. i don't know how to tell you any more simply or directly of my love for you. i don't know how to dispell this feeling you have that mom and i somehow don't like the person you are becoming. if we talk about areas where we'd like to see you improve it doesn't mean we don't love you totally or that we don't recognize the many other areas in which you excel. it's our duty to try and help you. our love that makes us care. you are the joy of our lives! love, dad

thursday 10.17.02 theo:
open your mind theo. i know that we all see the world with our own eyes. our own unique eyes. from the time we are born our biggest challenge is to understand ourselves and to understand that other people are different from us - different not wrong. so learn from other people. ask questions and listen to the answers. listen, think, & learn. love, dad