Birthday Gravy. And other things guaranteed to stick.

One year my birthday fell on a Sunday and at the age of ten, I had no idea what trouble my mother went to to pull off what I asked for that year. I wanted to eat Sunday dinner at home. I was tired at eating at Luby’s. I asked my mother to fry chicken…

The Taste of Love

The sense of taste, so they say, is almost as powerful a memory trigger as the sense of smell. So last Friday night when I put the first bite in my mouth, I was instantly taken back. The smooth texture of the not-too-sweet cream cheese frosting, chock full of pecans. The crunch of carrots mixed…

Birthdays

I’ve always loved my birthday.  From the minute I opened my eyes that morning until the day sadly faded into the night and it was all over until the next year.  I was the kid who went to school and proudly announced to everyone I saw that it was my birthday. Even in college I…

Icing On the Cake

When my youngest cousin, Joe, turned ten, his older brother, D.Wayne, and I decided we needed to bake him a cake for his birthday, so we did. All the birthday cakes my mom had made for me had writing on them, so of course, we had to do the same for Joe’s cake.  But we…