Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times

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Darcy O, January 29, 2010 (view all comments by Darcy O)
A little gem to warm the heart.

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LynneP, December 12, 2009 (view all comments by LynneP)
Among those hit hardest by the current recession are not the ones suffering the most economically. Sure, some have lost their jobs but their spouse remains employed and has health insurance. They are pursuing freelance opportunities. And even though some, such as magazine writer Suzan Colon, acknowledge that they don't have it as bad as some other Americans who are in genuine dire straits, this recession has just about blown their young yuppie minds.

Gracious. While still working at her former magazine job, Colon had to economize. No more buying lunch when she could make do with leftovers and sandwiches. After she loses her job and writes from home, she has to choose between a cooler room where the modem is located or going upstairs to the warmth and broadband. That these choices are treated as revelations of character shows how much people forget within the space of time that still exists in the memory of some living folks. (Just ask anyone older than, say 70, about the Great Depression. Or read The Grapes of Wrath. Or for more contemporary times, download Christmas in Appalachia)

Still, these forced economies send Colon to her late grandmother's recipe file and readers benefit from the stories about that remarkable lady. Cherries in Winter refers to how important it is to feed one's spirit by occasionally buying a treat. There was a time when fresh fruit, such as cherries, out of season were prohibitively expensive for all but the very rich. But a time when the author's mother bought them remains an episode that nourishes Colon's soul to this day. An earlier ancestor spent a week's worth of grocery money on a pair of vases that the author's mother still has.

Although the author's family is filled with women who put this kind of nourishment above constant penny-pinching, it is her grandmother Matilda who best embodies the spirit of feeding the soul. A can-do woman regardless of the circumstances life throws as her, Matilda never grumbles and always keeps on the sunny side. At one point her husband decides to uproot them from New York City to become farmers. Matilda befriends the ladies of the Grange by promising that, if they teach her how to cook, she'll do their hair and makeup. It's a happy arrangement and many of the recipes Colon finds in Nana's file are from those ladies.

Cherries in Winter is slim, even with stories from her family's past and recipes. But this is Colon's magazine background showing as much as anything. Instead of going on in greater detail, Colon keeps things as breezy as her grandmother's standard reply of "Fabulous, never better" to the question, "How are you?" Colon's volume is the kitchen equivalent of spending the afternoon at the day spa or a coffeehouse with girlfriends. Cherries in Winter is a frothy entertainment that demonstrates there are worse things that not having money. There are other kinds of poor, and money isn't the solution.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780385532525

Subtitle:

My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times

Author:

Colon, Suzan

Publisher:

Doubleday

Subject:

Motivational & Inspirational

Subject:

Food habits -- United States.

Subject:

Colon, Suzan

Subject:

Motivational

Copyright:

2009

Publication Date:

20091103

Binding:

Hardback

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

224

Dimensions:

7.84x5.32x.90 in. .68 lbs.