This post almost brought me to tears, and was SUCH a good reminder to slow down/calm down during the frenetic holiday season. My mom never really liked to cook, she was a single mom with four kids and getting dinner on the table every night was just something she had to do. With the exception of goulash and beef stew - which are fantastic. My sister and I got the cooking and baking genes from my grandmother, and I'm lucky enough to have several of her old hand-written recipes as well as a few treasured kitchen utensils. When I reach for the over-ripe bananas and make banana bread, I can hear my grandmother whispering "good job, don't let them go to waste!" I am so very lucky to still have my mom - she is 80 and in good health, sharp as ever - and I treasure our mother-daughter relationship. In the kitchen, though, it's my grandmother who speaks to me :) On Saturday, we'll have the annual family cookie day that my grandmother began, we even have some of her cookie cutters. So thank you, Barbara, for reminding us to cherish our memories of mothers and grandmothers, and to pass them on.

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