The Christmas Present

Last Christmas, I described my ambitious plan with my family over Zoom. After countless phone calls and emails sharing cooking adventures, I decided to present an unusual gift to my grandmother. I shared this cover and my plans to collect and organize all of Grammy’s favorite recipes into a cookbook. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to further connect and share laughs with my grandmother over our shared passion for cooking and baking despite a global pandemic and 1,000 miles keeping us apart. Sadly 16 days later, these plans were altered. On January 10th, 2021, my loving grandmother, Dorothy Dunn, passed away unexpectedly. While not able to connect with my grandmother as I had planned through shared images and stories, I have found that making her favorite recipes has both reminded me of treasured past experiences that we shared and continued to bring her presence into my meals and gatherings to this day. Over 300 hours, 8,000 photos and 50 “successful” attempts at recipes later, I have come to better understand why my grandmother loved making these recipes so much. The food is undoubtedly delicious, but sharing it with others makes the experience so much better.