How do you share your heart? Some people make crafts and share them, others bake a delicious meal or dessert. I recently had the opportunity to read this delightful book called, "You Be Sweet, Sharing Your Heart One Down-Home Dessert At A Time." with Recipes by Patsy Caldwell and stories by Amy Lules Wilson.
The other day I was given one of my Grandma's recipes and went to the store to get all the ingredients, I made one batch of Dream squares and then had to make several more for family to enjoy. It was so special to have the ability to taste the sweet treat she used to make us and watch my children enjoy that now. In the book they had a similar recipe called Just Perfect Cherry Walnut Bars. All the recipes are special to their Southern family and they entwine stories about how they became family traditions and sweet memories.
"You be sweet," my mother said to me as long ago as 1967, when I was six years old and heading off to my first day of school at Hattie Casey Elementary. Like generations of other Southerners, that phrase has served my family well for decades, regardless of the occasion. Mother practically raised my two sisters and me on those three little words. The all-purpose phrase saw me through my childhood: "You be sweet," Mother advised as I went next door to jump on a neighbor's trampoline; "You be sweet," she said when I told her the clique in junior high wanted little to do with me; "You be sweet," she repeated when in my twenties, I relocated to a town where I knew nary a soul; and now, "You be sweet," she says as we hung up the phone from our long distance calls.
There are myriad ways to "be sweet," of course, such as volunteering at the homeless shelter, remembering Aunt Carlisle's birthday, and writing thank-you notes. And then there is food: baking a pie for a new neighbor, icing a cake for a coworker who is ill, or mixing up a batch of brownies for a family gathering. As with Bless Your Heart: Saving the World One Covered Dish at a Time, Pasty Caldwell and I invite you to consider that the recipes in You Be Sweet are about more than food. We like to think they present opportunities for connection and community, and we hope they inspire you to serve up a piece to others as an expression of welcome, sympathy, celebration, or concern. For we believe that the sharing of food is akin to the sharing of one's heart, and we can think o no better way for us to "be sweet" to one another. - Amy Lyles Wilson
I love family recipes, here is a great recap of why from the book.
Ida goes to the pantry and takes out the tin box that contains her most cherished recipes, those scribblings from another era that offer more than mere instruction to Ida; they provide connection, and allow Ida an excuse to revisit some of her fondest memories.
There were so many amazing recipes and I found two that I thought would be a treat for the holiday season. Enjoy.
I know this post is not very wordless, sometimes that's just the way it works out, I hope you'll join me for Wordless Wednesday linkup. Please leave your blog link if you'd like to, I'd love to visit and see what you have to share! Also, connect with me via Social media:)
xoxo,
Nicole Flothe
