The Best Advice Ever Given...

When I was little my mother went to have her colors done.  It was an uncharacteristic act considering she was a woman who owned one lipstick and not a single pair of high heels.  I went along.  I was probably seven or eight years old; still young enough that adults would talk about things with the assumption that I was too young to understand.  As mother’s friend*** spun her color wheel and draped her with various shades of reds and blues, the friend imparted to my mother some of the best advice ever given. 

I am now going to share that advice with you.

“A woman should always decorate her home in her colors and she should always own a couch that she looks good naked on.”

While I may have been too young to fully appreciate what was being said, I must have instinctively known that this was a morsel of wisdom that I needed to file away for future use.

When I bought my first house, as a single woman, I also bought a light turquoise retro couch.  Turquoise is my color. 

There are many lessons to be learned from this story.  One is that we should try to surround ourselves with things that make us look good – perhaps even better than we are.  Just like good lighting and a great pair of shoes can hide many of your flaws, so can a good recipe. 

Everyone should have a couple of good dinner recipes, a dish that is always a hit at a pot luck, and a baked good that will keep them coming back for more.  That doesn’t mean you have to be a great cook, you just need to know how to do a couple of things very well.  They are those safe recipes that you know will never fail you.

For me, it’s my recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  These cookies have made me a lot of friends over the years.

It’s been a frustrating week in the kitchen.  Nothing I’ve tried to make has turned out quite like I anticipated.  The closest thing to a success was my attempt at making chess cake brownies in a jar.  Served in bar form, they are divine.  Served in a jar they are far too sweet.  They also overflowed when I baked them, then deflated so much that only half the jar was full.  So, in order to feel a little better about myself, I baked up a yummy batch of chocolate chip cookies.  They always make me look good.

*** I ran into my mother's friend a couple of years ago.  She was with another woman and was quick to publicize my successes.  She then turned to me and said, "And I don't care what Prissy always said.  You were never the demon spawn."