Category: Food

jello mold holiday fail
Daryn's Blog, Food

Lessons from a Thanksgiving Jello Mold Fail

For the record, I did ask for advice. When planning our family Thanksgiving, my sister and I decided we should include our late grandmother’s jello mold. I can still picture it on Nana’s table: canned Mandarin orange slices magically floating in orange Jello making up the top layer. More orange jello mixed in the Cool Whip on the bottom.  Yes, it is icky sweet and laden with more artificial colors and flavorings than you’ll find in a polyester dye factory.

Read more
Label this marriage conflicted
Daryn's Blog, Food, Good News, Love Stories, Marriage

Label this marriage ‘conflicted’

I’m armed and I’m told, dangerous.      No thing, no person is safe.      Hello, my name is Daryn and I’m a recovering slob.      Perhaps, “lazy clutterer” is a better label.      Speaking of labels, Husband says this is the problem. The messy beginning      We begin with the mess.      First there was me. I passed my lack of tidiness off to being single for so long.      Then, there was Husband. Surely, getting married would be the

Read more
Couple reveals mystery of what inside the top tier of their wedding cake from 63 years ago.
Family, Food, Good News, Love Stories, Uplifting Stories

Beautiful Wedding Cake Mystery Solved: 63 Years Later Couple Reveals What’s Inside

Wedding cake mystery It was a mystery more than 60 years in the making.      More than 60 years since LaMar and Julia married.      More than 60 years since they saved the top tier of their wedding cake.      Instead of eating it on their first anniversary, they kept it.      Pretty much forever.      For their forever.      Four grown kids.      Five grands.      One great grand.      Seven moves.      Two countries.      Each of those

Read more
Why the secret to my marriage is like a hard boiled egg.
Daryn's Blog, Food, Marriage

Realizing My Marriage Is Like The Inside Of A Hard Boiled Egg

It’s the hard boiled egg hack I’ve been looking for my entire life.      This story starts with a mystery. Our messy life      “Why would someone leave two random eggs sitting on a shelf in our fridge?” I asked myself as I went about my daily quest to keep the fridge somewhat organized.      With these pandemic times, both Husband and I and working from home, youngest daughter doing Fall semester of college from her cave, er, room, the

Read more
Food, Good News, Great Giving, Kindness, Uplifting Stories

TheMealBridge.com Website Let’s You Buy Meals For Healthcare Workers On The CoronaVirus Frontlines

One family creates TheMealBridge.com website to help show gratitude and save restaurants The MealBridge.com website is a new creation born out of the coronavirus crisis. One family in Atlanta came up with a brilliant idea that is meant to give folks a way to show gratitude to healthcare workers on the front lines. And it has the added benefit of bringing much needed business to restaurants who are struggling during this time. Grey Cohen tells me her family just thought

Read more
My embarrassing shameful Thanksgiving behavior
Daryn's Blog, Family, Food, Marriage

This Great Thanksgiving Debate Is Dividing My Marriage

You need to have the final say on this Thanksgiving debate You might suggest that this is something Husband and I should’ve addressed before we got married.      You would not be wrong.      Except that, we are so far apart on this issue, it’s possible, had we discussed it, no marriage would’ve ever taken place.      Our differences should not shock us.      Look at how differently we grew up.      Different parts of the country.      Different religions.

Read more
Could black jelly beans be the most controversial candy in America?
Daryn's Blog, Food

Are Black Jelly Beans The Sweetest, Most Divisive Candy In America?

Where do you stand on black jelly beans? You’re either going to be with me,      Or vehemently, “Get out of my house now!” against me on this one.      In this divisive era,      Where Republicans and Democrats can’t govern,      When Easter and Passover fell on the same weekend,      Where there is only one way to feel about the New England Patriots,      I have found a topic more divisive.      How could something so little,     

Read more
The holidays are dead to me.
Daryn's Blog, Family, Food, The Hard Stuff

The Holidays Are Dead To Me & Other Things That Make Me Happy

The holidays are dead to me.      Which is a big reason this is one of the best times of the year. By “dead,” I actually mean THE dead, as in those who have passed.      I love how they have a way of taking a seat at my holiday table. Something tells me they might be at yours, as well.      From the moment I pull my grandmother’s pressed glass serving pieces from the cabinet that came from great

Read more
Daryn's Blog, Family, Food, Parenting

The Joy Of Losing A Job I Have Loved So Very Much

It appears I’m losing my job. A job I’ve loved very much. A job I dreamed of getting for years. Even though I knew I was the least worthy person in the world. I didn’t have an ice cube in the desert’s chance of getting. And yet, It happened. Now, it’s going away. And I am, Well, Happy. Scratch that. Mark me down as giddy. The job? Like you, Dear Reader, it is one of many I juggle. I am,

Read more
1 2