This past weekend I had the pleasure of making more memories with friends and family. First, among dear friends celebrating the eve of summer with a fabulous shrimp boil, complete with spicy corn, potatoes and loads of great conversation, cornhole and kids roasting marshmellows around the bonfire. Then it was off to a pre-season football celebration, introducing incoming freshmen to returning upper classmen and rallying the parents for another season of bleacher bootie. Nothing like indoor 'tailgatin' with fried chicken, potluck salads and loads of homemade desserts. Too completely different events, yet both filled with fun, fellowship and way too much good food!

My contribution you're wondering? A family favorite straight from the pages of the Needham Assembly of God cookbook ((Choctaw Co, Alabama)) -- Hummingbird Cake submitted by Mrs. Mamie Blackmon Chapman. And before you ask, NO hummingbirds were harmed in the making of this deva-ish three-layer delight. Think carrot cake but moister with pineapple and bananas and loads of thick, creamy cream cheese frosting with crushed pecans... worth every painstaking hand-stirred minute believe me.

I have personally never met Mrs. Chapman, but I have taken loads of compliments from folks I barely know for her recipe. I can only imagine how her own family and friends must have waited in anticipation each time she presented her creation for their enjoyment - maybe it was a special birthday or just a lazy Sunday afternoon in the south, but I'm sure it was always made with love and served with heaping portions of good times and warm memories.

Here's to you, Mrs. Chapman, to Natalie and Mike Oehler, and to the Guerin Catholic High School Golden Eagles football team and it's fans. May each day be filled with sweet memories!

~ God bless and hope to see you around my table again soon.

Tupperware Today: bringing back memories

I'm a big fan of nostalgia. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about new technology, being 'green' and finding better ways to do things - look at me, I'm blogging for goodness sake! But sometimes, just for a moment, I get sentimental for the days when life was easier, when we weren't always rushing at the speed of light and things actually got crossed off our to-do lists: the days of Aunt Bea cooking up something good for Opie or Edith setting the table for Archie.

What triggers special memories for you? Maybe its a song that takes you back to a special place in time. Or maybe its a fragrance like spring lilacs or the first bonfire of fall. To be honest, for me, it's food.

Every major event in my life, good or bad, seems to be tied to food and the smells that go along with it. Whether it was a wedding, graduation or funeral, a family reunion, baby shower or just Sunday dinner after church, there was always something good being prepared by somebody who loved me. It didn't have to be a favorite dish cooked just for me (although those were the BEST!), sometimes it was just that unspoken "I made this with love" that left me feeling I had all I'd ever need -- well that and the left-overs they'd send home with me :)

Today, most of my cooking is done for my two children. And nothing makes me happier than to have them bust thru the front door naming what I'm cooking, having guessed the menu by the aromas wafting thru the house. Somewhere years from now, life will carry them to a place where similar smells will bring them back to happy times at home with Mom, sitting down to a homecooked meal and talking about this and that. At least that's my prayer for them - happy memories of home.

Tupperware Today, my blog and my business, was started because of memories found in my mom's tupperware in my cupboard. I'd bet if I took a poll, most of you reading this have at least one piece of hand-me-down Tupperware that has a good memory tied to it. Our grandparents and our parents had their share of tough times too, times when dollars were few and pennies were too precious to be thrown in the fountain. They learned to value what was valueable, time with family, and they passed those values down to us.

In a world where today's job isn't guaranteed to be there tomorrow, we're all looking for ways to save our dollars or (at the minimum) make them spread out a bit further. We're eating out less and reheating left-overs more. We're enjoying homemade treats while playing board games with the kids, we're looking for 'stylish' ways to brown-bag it in the office and we're wondering how we can do it all while being good to our environment and to our fellow man. I don't have all the answers, but I'm hoping to have some fun while on the journey.

I hope this blog will inspire you to make some memories with your family and friends. It doesn't have to be big grand gestures of 5-course meals served on fancy china, but if it is that's fine too. What matters is that you share it with someone you care about.

~ God bless and hope to see you around my table again soon.