For Thanksgiving we all had to write a piece about a person and a food that we connected over. I think that this is a representation of some of my best work. I feel that I am good a zooming in on a small moment. This was also a very meaningful piece for me and I feel like I put all that emotion into the piece. This was also one of my favorite writing things that we have done this year.

11-4-16                                                                                                      Humanities

Food Writing                                                                                              Group B

Cookies And Reindeer

By Ruby Wexler

In the middle of winter when it’s so cold and the freezing air seeps through the walls and fills the house with bitter icy air, only is one thing that makes me grin and fills me with joy. Gooey chocolate chip cookies, though they are warming to eat it’s really more about the process of making them that warms me so much. I always love to make cookies with my sister, Ella. We always make them when it’s cold and take them out of the oven early so they’re warm and gooey.

On a freezing morning that seems to go on forever, I am sitting in the living room, wrapped in a warm blanket. My sister comes thundering down the stairs. She hurries to the pantry, leaping like a deer. She opens it with a flourish and pulls out a yellow and red bag, which makes me grin.

“Chocolate chips!” I yell. Ella smiles and nods. She started to pull out all the dry ingredients. I run over to the fridge. All cold has left me now. I pull out the milk, butter and eggs, then run to the shelves and grab canola oil. We pile all the ingredients on the counter and take out bowls, spoons and measuring cups. We start to mix the dry ingredients. They are all as white and fresh as the snow outside. Ella sticks her finger into the sugar, that we are about to add, and taps my nose so the tip of my nose is white.

“Ruby the white nosed reindeer!” She sings.

“Had a very sugary nose,” I continue. We both laugh. The sound is like little chiming bells and fills the room with sunshine. When it’s time to add the brown sugar, we eat so much of it there is only just enough to put in the mix. I turn on the mixer it swirls the light brown contents until it is smooth. It 1looks like freshly made caramel waiting to be eaten. Then we add the flour mixture, slowly sprinkling into the bowl slowly mixes it in. We look in the bowl, there is only a little bit of flour left Ella takes it and throws it in most of it ends up on us because the mixer is too fast. We fall over laughing getting the snow white powder everywhere. At last it’s time to add the chocolate chips. We take turns adding them, throwing them in then watching them disappear in the depths of the dough. The recipe says to add a cup, but we always add an extra handful for fun. We scoop out the dough on to sheets, making sure they are evenly spaced out and put them into the oven. Then we take our places across from the oven with the bag of chocolate chips between us. The wait is almost unbearable. With ten minutes left, we have eaten almost all the chocolate. Five minutes left the floor is hurting my butt! Three, two, one! The timer dings and Ella puts on oven mitts, and pulls out the gooey, perfect cookies. We wait again until they are cool enough to eat. I touch one. It’s warm but not too hot. We both grab the same cookie and grin I break it in half, we each take one half and take a bite. The outside is crunchy, but the inside is gooey and the chocolate is melted perfectly. We eat a few more then save the rest. They are always good but not as good as the first bite that I shared with my sister.  

This memory is important to me because my relationship with my sister has changed. She decided to go to boarding school. She left home four years earlier than I thought. That memory took place three years ago but it feels like another lifetime. It feels like a hundred years until she comes home for break. It’s like one of my best friends has grown up and left me, no, one of my best friends has grown up and left me. Leaving behind me in a ever blowing storm, where I sit alone waiting for the angel that will save me with the sweet smell of baking cookies. Though when she does come home we make chocolate chip cookies and I feel as happy as I did three years ago. When we do we dance, and I am, once more a forever happy reindeer.