More love on the table

Approximately once a month, Sicily and I get together for a “baking date.” She’s a DELIGHTFUL nine-year-old, wise and funny, big-hearted and passionate. And like me, she loves to get her hands in the bowl.  A couple weeks ago, we were making a gingerbread cake for her to take home to her family. It came time to “sift together the dry ingredients” and she looked to me with hopeful eyes, “Can I use my hands?”  ”Absolutely!”  So with her clean fingers she began sweeping and parting and stirring the silky flour and the spices through the sieve into the bowl beneath.  Shaking the last bits of flour dust down, she lifted the sieve, and – cross my heart! – THIS is what was waiting:

Both our eyes widened, and I said, “Look at that, Sicily!  You’re putting love in your gingerbread!” And she said, “Quick, Nana, get your cell phone. Take a picture!” And so I did. And so it goes…from Sicily’s hands, to the table, with love.

(This post first appeared in March 2011. The gingerbread we baked together was made just before Valentines Day, which made the occasion of this heart in a bowl doubly serendipitous. That recipe will appear in a later post.)