Or maybe you’re making Spanish tapas because while you’d love to travel there someday, you can go to Spain today, in a small way, from your kitchen. It’s not just a sandwich it’s your recreation of your favorite sandwich from that café in your college town. It’s not just a tomato sauce: it’s the tomato sauce your grandmother used to make. If you love to cook, you know that recipes are more than just food. Not just a means to satisfy physical hunger, the dishes we make can satisfy our hunger for nostalgia or adventure. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I will receive a small commission, but you won’t pay any more! I consider it the little black dress of cakes because it's fast, easy, and takes hardly any ingredients but comes out of the oven looking like a million bucks.This post contains affiliate links. 'Marcella's Butter Almond Cake is a recipe in the book and is a touchstone for me in thinking about who I am the kind of cook and baker I wanted to be. In her book, Fechtor shares some of those recipes and the stories behind them. As a result, when Fechtor was putting her life back together after the aneurysm, food and the memory of certain dishes became a part of her daily survival. It was a way for her to bond with her step-mother Amy, who liked to be creative in the kitchen and showed Fechtor how different foods tasted together. That was a powerful experience for me.' Fechtor has also had a longstanding passion for food and cooking.

We were ten years old and would have to write something and then share it with the class. Barron showed us how writing can be a tool for heightened awareness. In particular, she says former 5th grade teacher Laurie Barron helped get her started. Fechtor has always loved to write and credits many teachers in the Orange School District with creating that passion. This book is the story of my recovery and how I reclaimed my life through food and cooking,' Fechtor said. I found that doing simple everyday things like just chopping an onion made a difference. I was 'broken' and needed to find a way to get back to normal. 'This illness made me very aware of my own mortality and shook the confidence I had in myself and my body.

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