you had me at Jell-O...

   at least that's where it all started... my love, no- my passion for food- baking, cooking - the process of it all. not being one to have the patience to say, restore a house, there's just something magical about transforming simple ingredients into a golden loaf of banana bread within an hour's time that makes my world go 'round... but, banana bread is another story.

   it was 1974- carol brady was rocking the long shag hair-do & "1-2-3 Jell-O" hit the shelves of supermarkets nationwide. to my 10 year old self, it was magic... 2 cups of water, the mystical contents of the white packet & WA-LA! three hours in the refrigerator & there sat the most glorious sight-3 separate layers of pink (or purple or orange) gelatinous bliss- darker pink & more solid on the bottom, medium pink, slightly whippy in the middle, & petal pink, frothy joy on the top- garnished with a generous dollop of my favorite Dream Whip & 1/2 a strawberry & i was a goner.

   making Jell-O parfaits became my hobby, my favorite past-time, my all-consuming passion. thank heaven my mother was a daily "what's-for-dinner?" kind of gal, so we made frequent trips to the Safeway not 3 blocks from our house & soon i'd amassed a collection of Jell-O that would make a church cookbook envious.

   my dad loved it. he was an estate planning attorney who came home every night for dinner , which we (my mom, dad, two sisters & me) ate happily in our customary places around the kitchen table. each night following dinner which likely included chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, gravy, green beans, tossed salad & iced tea (my mom is a good cook), i would present my Jell-O offering as if it were a scepter for a king... served in a curvy parfait with an iced tea spoon -so my dad could make sure & retrieve every jiggly bit . you may be wondering if all this Jell-O became monotonous- heavens no- i had a million combinations of fruits (bananas, pineapples, oranges & apples) & flavors (orange, cherry, lime, and strawberry- banana) with which to wow my family- ok, i did the math, i had exactly 16 combinations, but who's counting ? sometimes, i even tilted the base of whatever sparkling glassware i was using that day in the racks of the fridge for a diagonal effect that took my breath away- i was SO fancy.

   well into the first year of my humble culinary beginnings, worried that my dad was at risk of actually congealing in his LazyBoy, i made a momentous decision. it was time to move on... to cookies. and i never looked back.

                                                                                         -the snackmom