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INSPIRATION HQ: Caitlin Shetterly Asks, "What Inspires You to Give a Labor of Love?" (Prompt 10 #swinspires)
Contributor
Written by
Inspiration HQ
December 2010
Contributor
Written by
Inspiration HQ
December 2010

Author: Caitlin Shetterly, Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home (a memoir)
Prompt: What inspires you to...give a labor of love

 

Every holiday season, my husband, Dan, and I make the same ginger cookies. Every year they drive us crazy and we have a huge fight and swear we will never, ever bake these goddamn cookies again. Every year we make them again.

 

The cookies in question come from a recipe given to us by my surrogate grandmother, Cherie. She had made them for Dan one time we visited. Dan loves to eat anything and everything that comes out of her kitchen, including her roast duck with caraway seeds and her lemon meringue pie that tastes like you might imagine angels would taste if you were an ethereal cannibal. And these cookies were no exception; he was, indeed, in heaven at first bite So, she wrote it out on a piece of notebook paper in her plain, yet elegant, script and handed him what would soon become our Christmas gauntlet. 


 

The recipe calls for the usual things: butter, brown sugar, an egg, molasses, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, salt. But then it has a twist: it calls for chopped crystallized ginger. When these cookies come out right, which averages one batch out of five, they are chewy and gooey, crunchy on the edges and the little pieces of ginger are like tiny bombs on the tongue. Because they are made with blackstrap molasses they are both bitter and sweet. They are, without a doubt, the best cookies we’ve ever tasted—including, even, chocolate.

 

We give them as gifts every year to family spread out across the country and to our dearest friends. And, unfortunately, everyone loves them—even fights over them each year.  My dear friend Vanessa, now living in Hong Kong, called this year to try to figure out how I could get them to her there, or at least send her the recipe (which, by the way, when I started to explain, she quickly said—“Forget it! There’s no way I can handle those cookies!”) What our thankful receivers do not know is the level of stress which has gone into that perfect cookie they now hold in their hands. Not to mention the ingredients that have gone down the drain as we curse the cookie gods. Forget the fact that we put off making them for so long and then have such an arduous time of it that they must be express mailed two days before Christmas. These cookies are, quite simply, a labor of love, given to a few because we know that, even with all the pain the ass they entail, our family and friends not only love them, they look forward to them.

 

You might be thinking right now that we’re the problem. That would seem justified because I cannot explain to you why this recipe is cursed.  But if you follow it, it just never turns out right. It seems to require lots of jiggering of this and that—never the same this-es and thats of last year—and it’s still funky, until it isn’t. When we finally get a batch that works, we write it all down and make sure that it’s documented for next year. And next year we try it and it takes another four tries until we get it right again. We’ve tried calling Cherie and asking her to clarify: Did she forget something when she wrote it down? No. Does she have any advice? Not really.

 

Although she did offer this: “You know that recipe always was a little off. I don’t make those anymore.”

 

Good, so it’s not just us. We’re just the only ones insane enough to keep at it.

 

The first year Dan and I were married—and the second year we’d been making these cookies as gifts—I got so angry at the recipe (and, of course, at Dan) that I found a Martha Stewart recipe for pistachio brittle and made it in protest while Dan tried to find the sweet spot of our ginger cookies. Martha’s recipe was perfectly straightforward. Everything went as planned. No muss, no fuss. But I felt sort of empty afterwards, like I’d just gone to Walmart to buy a Christmas tree when I could have driven much longer and tromped around in the woods to cut down my own. I missed the journey.

 

This year we made them again with our two-year-old son. He smeared the molasses all over his face and our kitchen and stuck his hands in the sticky dough. He was full of pure cookie joy as his parents grumbled in faux swears (“Goshdangit!”  and “Jeez Luis!”) which he echoed with glee. But here’s the thing: somehow with our notes from last year and a little luck (and, oddly, warm water), they came out perfectly. I can’t tell you what we did. When Dan saw that I had not written a thing down, he exclaimed,  “What were you doing???”

 

“I don’t know, “ I confessed. “I was watching the cookie dough and worrying!” 

 

Last night we packaged them up in glass Pyrex containers with festive red tops. We bubble wrapped our cookies and put them in boxes. And then we mailed them, sent with love and holiday cheer all over the country. What are we really giving with this gift, I found myself wondering? Maybe, I realized, just a few moments of simple, unadulterated sweetness.

 

But the experience is all ours.

 

What about YOU?  What inspires you to give a labor of love? Respond in comments or in a post at your SW blog and tag it #swinspires.  We may, in turn, feature you!

 

Caitlin Shetterly is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, where she first told some of the story that became Made for You and Me. She is also a freelance writer, an actor, and the founder and artistic director of the Winter Harbor Theatre Company. She lives in Portland, Maine, and blogs at caitdangowest.squarespace.com.

 

Photo creds: Daniel. E Davis

 

 

Eds' note: Caitlin's book, due out in March 2011 from our friends at Hyperion's Voice imprint, is so heartwarming, we can't resist telling you more.  Here's the description:

 

 

Newlywed Caitlin Shetterly and her husband, Dan Davis, two hardworking freelancers, began their lives together in 2008 by pursuing a lifelong, shared dream of leaving Maine and going West. At first, California was the land of plenty. Quickly, though, the recession landed, and a surprise pregnancy that was also surprisingly rough made Caitlin too sick to work. By December, every job Dan had lined up had been canceled, and though he pounded the pavement, from shop to shop and from bar to bar, he could not find any work at all. By March 2009, every cent of the couple’s savings had been spent.

 

So, a year after they’d set out with big plans, Caitlin and Dan packed up again, this time with a baby on board, to make their way home to move in with Caitlin’s mother. As they drove, Caitlin blogged about their situation and created audio diaries for NPR’s Weekend Edition—and received an astounding response. From all across the country, listeners offered help, opening their hearts and their homes. And when the young family arrived back in rural Maine and squeezed into Caitlin’s mother’s small saltbox house, Caitlin learned that the bonds of family run deeper than any tug to roam, and that, with love, she and Dan could hold their dreams in sight, wherever they were.  

 

Made for You and Me captures the irrepressible spirit and quiet perseverance of one small family—and offers to share that strength with any reader willing to make the journey.

 

Available for pre-order NOW

 

Like this post?  Then please SHARE it!  Here's a tweet: 

Author Caitlin Shetterly asks, what inspires you to give a labor of love? Tell She Writes,& happy holidays! http://bit.ly/h6khsM #swinspires

 

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