Memories…

Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, oh how they can flood your brain with memories. Some really happy, some very sad, but never in between.

The taste of my grandmother’s rosemary bbq chicken and corn on the cobb takes me right to a crowded picnic table with my family at my summer house. The sun is always setting right in your eyes, the butter that you need for your bread is always on the other end of the long table, and you can’t move your elbows without hitting the person next to you. Ahhh, the best kind of dinner anyone could ask for.

Elizabeth Arden Sunflower perfume reminds me of the girl who had a locker right next to mine in middle school. She was everything I wanted to be. Beautiful, tall, mature, funny and popular. No braces or glasses like you know who. She was just a perfume, mascara wearing kind of chick. Sarah, I wonder what you are up to now. I bet you are still cooler than me.

Whenever I take a bite into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I think of college. In the last year I was in school I consumed more pb+j sandwiches than a person should. I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes. They remind me of my friend Meg. We loved them and hated them all at the same. They were a symbol of how poor we were, yet a symbol of how exciting and free our lives were. I hated them for a while after that…now I just love them.

Hearing any song from Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill reminds me of the dumb hours I spent pining over boys when I was 13.

The feel of my beloved cowboy boots every time I slide my feet into them reminds me of a very exciting time in my life. Where I was when I bought them: LA. Who I was with: Meg (we jumped out of a cab and ran across Sunset Blvd.) Where I wore them first: a first date…how appropriate.  They have been through a lot with me…happy and sad. I know they will walk with me through many more times and that’s comforting.

The taste of cotton candy reminds me of being happy. Genuinely, for real, nothing-but-happy-kind-of-happy. Ice Capades with my grandparents, the Dutchess County Fair with my friends, baseball games with my dad. I even had cotton candy perfume in college.  Other than it making my teeth hurt, being way too expensive for just being colored sugar, and making your fingers stick together, what’s not to love?

Ever wonder how many  sound, smell, sight and taste memories you’re making every day for the future and don’t even realize? I do. Well, start now with these cupcakes.  They’re pink. They’re sweet and they’ll make you happy.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/12 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 TBS butter
• 1 Large egg, plus u egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1 bottle of cotton candy flavoring

Beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg in one at a time, beating well until fully incorporated. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients in three adidtions alternating with the milk. Divide batter into cupcake tins and bake at 350 for 18-20 mins.

Frosting

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 tsp butter
• 3 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 bottle of cotton candy flavoring
• a few drops of the brightest pink food coloring

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in cereal. Once mixed together, pipe icing onto cupcakes. Top each cupcake with pink and blue sprinkles and sugar.