Fear Not

Anyone who grew up when I did learned to love the Charlie Brown Christmas special. We talk about Charlie Brown trees at the lot, those poor things that are more stick than needles. We know all the words to “Christmas Time Is Here.” We know exactly how awful pink aluminum Christmas trees are, no matter what today’s fashionable magazines tell us is “on trend.” But the...
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Fashion Failure

Sometimes I wonder when the nice people from the hospital are going to call and tell me that there’s been a terrible error and that they gave me the wrong baby. I mean, Frack is a straight-up fashionista. She’s had an innate sense of style since birth and has always had strong opinions about colors and styles, not to mention the ability to throw things together that shouldn’t...
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mimi’s Black Magic Chili

Tonight is the church’s Halloween Hoedown and the return of the church-wide Chili Cookoff. If there’s one thing that’s pretty certain in church-related cooking contests, it’s that the Bero/Gaston women will do very well. Mama, aka Miss Carolyn, is famous for her homemade soups and ridiculously good pecan shortbread, while middle sis, Cigi, makes a chocolate thing so good...
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Kitchen Smackdown, Family Style

Today the church music ministry held its annual cookoff. This year’s twist? Take a firefighter favorite recipe, make it your own, and submit it for judging by actual firefighters. Mama, sis, and yours truly all entered–different categories, as it turns out–and brought home two wins! My mother is an excellent cook, so I was not surprised at all when her version of Low Tide Chicken won...
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