Food, love.

          Food makes everything better. I know this because, after getting some unwanted news this morning, my boyfriend brought me a Hostess apple pie and a Reeses Crispy Crunchy bar at work to make me feel better. And it worked.

          When I was in 8th grade, my mom got suckered into making the decorations for my middle school graduation and semi-formal dance. My friends and I gathered in the art room after school to help cover things in paint and glitter, and my mom supplied a tupperware full of fresh-baked, Toll House, chocolate chip cookies. I don’t know why, but this felt like an enormous gesture of awesome mother-love, and I still remember it ten years later. Not only was she very generously spending her time cutting and pasting hundreds of star-shaped decorations for us, but she brought snacks. And since then, I’ve made it my mission to bring the snacks whenever possible.

          I know that tying food up with one’s emotions is an unhealthy thing (I’ve watched Oprah), but sometimes food is so much more. It’s a way to show the people you love that you love them, or want them to feel better, or both. It shows that you thought about these people long enough to have mixed up the dough and spooned out the cookies and patiently watched the oven as they rose and melted into sweet deliciousness. Or, at least long enough to make a trip to the store and a special work delivery. That counts, too. And for the record, one should never underestimate the ability of banana bread to smooth over all sorts of roommate quarrels, a fact which I can personally attest to after living with seven female art majors (plus a couple smelly boyfriends) my freshman year of college.

          So be well, eat well, and check back often for ideas about what to make for all the people in your life who are sweet and delicious.