family

"After 75 Years, The Cheese Stands Alone"

cheese.jpg

This beautiful article about an heirloom wheel of cheese - frozen and kept fresh by a New York family since the 1940s! - reminds me of the tiny morsel of fruitcake my mother still keeps in her fridge; has kept safe in her fridge for over twenty years.

Read more here.

That little sliver, which gets smaller and smaller every year, is taken from one of the last fruitcakes my grandmother used to make and serve at Christmas. Spiced with blackberry rum (a special, holiday-only treat) and filled with candied fruits and other spices, she would prepare it around Thanksgiving, and then leave the cake to "season," wrapped safely in cheesecloth, until Christmas.

Describing the little intricacies of meals or food is such a visceral part of my writing. It's one of my favorite ways to get into characters' heads. I hope you have the same kind of luck with your stories. Imagine the kind of food or drink that would spark a new experience for them, and for your work as a whole.

Happy Monday,

CL

Image Credit: The New York Times