I heard it could be done, but never had proof until this week.
In fact, I never really tried until my little grandson broke his leg.
But when a grandson with a smile that turns stone into molten lava gets hurt, what else can a far-away grandmother (known in his world as Grammy Pammy) do?
So yes, I sneak down to the dark corner of my basement, where I hide the thick ancient texts on “cooking magic” and “baking love,” the texts that my family know nothing about.
I race to the store and buy the everyday ingredients of butter and eggs (organic, of course, from a cage-free farm), sugar and vanilla, oats and semi-sweet chips.
I light a softly scented Frasier fir candle and breathe in the aroma of Mother Nature intensified.
And then I close my eyes and visualize the little guy.
At five, he thinks he can ski with abandon. The ski instructors call him “Turbo,” which spurs him on to race even faster down the feet-thick mounds of Sierra mountain snow.
But his little legs aren’t as strong as his will, and he tumbles hard. His tibia snaps.
I now conjure his Cheshire cat grin. I feel the little-boy hug he gave me earlier this month when I played with him, in person, on the other coast.
And then I read page 744, Chapter 52, on baking love.
I hardly feel my fingers as they measure the flour, beat the sugar concoction, pour the chips and oatmeal into the bowl, then transfer the entire mix into a baking pan and slide it into the hot oven.
The aroma of the sweet bars fills the house, and my guy stumbles down from his home office, sniffing wildly, embracing me with abandon in hopes for a bite.
“Not for you!” I say, softly pushing him away.
When it’s time, I lay the baked and cooling bars gently on a towel and add another ingredient.
A secret love ingredient known only to grandmothers.
An hour later, quietly and reverently, I cut the bars into squares and begin to pack them in a special mailing bag. Not quietly enough. My guy sneaks in, distracts me, and reaches for a bar.
“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” he moans ecstatically. “These are the best you’ve ever baked. What did you do?”
I take a bite. Y E S! The special recipe worked! I can feel the love pour within my organs and my brain, the tips of my fingers and the soles of my feet.
With the patience of a wife, I don’t answer my guy’s question as I shush him out of the kitchen. My spell cannot be interrupted! The delicacies are wrapped and given the last treatment suggested in the magical cookbook.
Then, I mail them, with special instructions to the postal clerk, who peers at me with wonder, but complies with my request.
Baked Love in a Box, due to arrive in two days.
my eyes somehow no longer dry …
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My eyes were kinda wet writing this…I really do believe that love can heal.
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It is SO nice to be on the same coast as my grands and baking up lots of love for them. I love your post!
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Hope you have lots of Christmas cookie love this week.
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Awwww, wonderful post.
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You could even say that my post is ‘sweet’ – I won’t be offended. 🙂
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Smiling.
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My Mom did all our Christmas cookie baking after her Mom’s hands got too arthritic, but my daughter picked up the reins after her Nana died! Bless her! I love to cook, bake not so much. I pick one easy, no fail, fun cookie recipe that I make with the grandgirls and that’s it! Well, I do our daughter’s birthday cake on Dec 23rd and yes, I use plenty of that special love ingredient in all my holiday cooking ❤️🎄
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I have a feeling that I want that recipe of your Dec. birthday cake! My daughter’s cookies are good – but they’re not as good as mine. But I’ll never tell her that. 🙂
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So hard to be far away. I’m sure this package will cheer him up.
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I’ve heard the package brought a big smile – and then a contest to keep the sweet bars away from the rest of the family…!!!
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Awwww. so sweet! Not being a pots and pan kitchen person myself, I do drawings that entertain, using that same secret ingredient . . . we grandmothers know. 🙂
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Now that’s a great way to ‘show the love ‘ – through your art work. What a loving act that remains a lot longer than a cookie.
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I just wanna see that book lol 🙂
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You’re funny. Since this post, I’ve seen a few family members sneaking down to the basement, but ‘the book’ is hidden well.
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Aw…poor little guy. I’m sure your special delivery will bring a smile to his sweet little face. You’re a good granny. ❤
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Well, I don’t feel like a ‘granny,’ thus I prefer the Pammy part to the Grammy. Ha ha. His smiles are delightful, no matter what he calls me. 🙂
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Baked Love in a Box … that pretty well said it all ❤
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I wonder if we could market Baked Love in a Box = could be quite a popular Valentine gift!! xo
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Oh – I’m thinking this is an all-year-round kind of treat …. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthdays, just-because …. the possibilities are endless 🙂
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Hmm, let me work on that business plan. 🙂
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I’m sure Granny Pammy’s special love baked treats will brighten your grandson’s day. Wishing him a speedy recovery and you and yours a Merry Christmas! ❤
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THANK YOU – Merry, Merry to you and yours, also.
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Awe❤️
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Love to you, Jeanette! xo
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oh bet he’ll forget all about his leg while he bites into a sweet bar!! xoxo
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That’s what I’m hoping – maybe a broken bone will be worth it, for those chocolate chip butterscotch oatmeal bars that don’t have to be shared with his two brothers…!!!
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“How sweet it is” seems to fit here. A Jackie Gleason quote.
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I remember how much my dad loved that Jackie Gleason quote – ageless and timeless, just like ‘baked love in a box.’
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Your dad was a good man.
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Miss him much, but talk to him all the time. ❤
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Lovely to know that.
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P.S. Love your cat post on ‘hearing.’ The photos that go with the information are priceless. I couldn’t find a place to comment on the post, so doing it here.
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Well, you’ve done it again — managed to pull me right into the kitchen with you and fill my heart with the recognition of a grandmother’s love and my eyes with a few tears for the power of the beautiful scene you painted for us. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and wishing that little guy lots of healing energy. Now, I’m off to bake some cookies 🙂
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Elizabeth – I have NO doubt that your cookies have some pretty special love potion themselves. xo
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Oh, the memories you invoked with your magic, Pam! Our grandson, Brennan, broke his leg in two places during a hockey game when he was around 10. We were in Paris and I’m sure it was the first game we had missed. I could not get home fast enough. We left the next day! A lot of brownies and cookie dough ice cream made their way to him over the next few months. His Iove for the sport he had started playing at age 4 was not abated a bit by this setback. He went on to play for another 8 years and still coaches a sled hockey yeam and plays in a men’s league. I’m sure yours will be racing down those slopes as soon as the doctor gives him the “go!”😀
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Thanks for the story of your Brennan, Melaney. I must admit, I’m not sure I want my little 5-year-old grandson, ‘Turbo,’ to get back on those ski slopes, but I bet no one will be able to stop him!
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Oh Pam, I can feel the love oozing out of your cookies. I hope your little guy feels better soon .
I was going to avoid Christmas altogether this year but I made two batches of cookies yesterday and before I knew it I was in the mood for Christmas.
Fröhliche Weihnachten to you and your loved ones.
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I think I’d break a bone or two for YOUR cookies, Gerlinde!!! Seriously, you must bake and cook with a lot of love, because the photos of your creations are LOVE-ly.
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This is just beautiful, Pam. You made me all misty! I really hope the little sweetheart heals quickly and I’m sure he will with your loving recipe xxxx
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Thanks, Dianne. I kinda get misty thinking of little ‘Turbo’ sitting still with a cast while his two brothers run circles around him. Hope he’s munching on a c.c. bar and feelin’ the love, instead.
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Lovely! I never had any grandparents so missed out on all that grandparents mean to people. I’m sure whatever the secret ingredient is is known not just to grandparents but to grandkids too.
Beautiful expressed. I hope the little guy’s leg mends soon.
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You are so right! Grandkids exude amazing love to their grandparents. I’m not quite sure why there’s such accepting love between grand adult and grand kid, but it’s a special bond, indeed.
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You’re the Grammy Pammy ever! ❤
Diana xo
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I forgot the word BEST! You’re the BEST Grammy Pammy ever!
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🙂
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Poor little guy! I hope his tibia mends quickly and that he enjoys every minute he spends eating those extra-special sweet bars from Grammy Pammy. 🙂
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I’m guessing another round of extra-special sweet bars may be necessary in another week or two, when the ‘fun’ of a cast wears off!
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How sweet. I try to bake special love for my grandchildren too. Love their smiles.
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Even if baked silently, even if we are unseen, the sweetness of a special baked treat exudes our love, yes?
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Yes. I love cooking for my little ones. Well they are almost teenagers
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But they’re always your grandkids!!! 🙂
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Always even my 14 year old who I look up to is my baby. 🙂
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Ah this is magic! I hope the little guy is back in action soon. xxx
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Thanks. I have a feeling little ‘Turbo’ will be trying to get back into action TOO soon. 🙂
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Oh I know that side of things but hopefully your goodies will slow him down a little bit!
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This will make him happy! I’m about to enter my pre-Christmas cookie baking frenzy!
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Are you in Day Two of the baking frenzy? I wonder what your favorite Christmas cookie is to bake. Have fun!
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“Grammy Pammy,” ya gotta love it!
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My daughter-in-law came up with the name. I think she’s very pleased with herself. 🙂 🙂
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We need more people like you in the world, Pamela. Thanks for the heartwarming story, and for the cliffhanger of a different variety 😉 Thanks for sharing and best wishes for a speedy, er turbo, recovery for your grandson 🙂
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Well, we can ALWAYS use more chocolate chip butterscotch oatmeal bars in our life, that’s for sure!! May you have many sweets surrounding you this holiday season, Dave.
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Grandma baked goods can heal broken bones more effectively than plaster casts. But you shoulda made an extra pan for the husband.
ALWAYS make an extra pan for the husband.
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Funny, that’s EXACTLY what my guy said, too!
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Smart man you married.
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So he tells me…repeatedly. 🙂
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Good. It’s important to know that one is smart.
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“A secret love ingredient known only to grandmothers.” And, as well, amazing writers! Hope he’s feeling better! Just stopping by to say Merry Christmas! ~Karen~ xoxo
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Karen – so nice to have you drop by (I had to use that term – drop – like a drop of Christmas cookie dough on a greased and ready cookie sheet). 🙂 Merry, Merry Christmas to you and yours. ❤
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That’s a great concept Pam, actually baking your love into the product. Like giving something you have created yourself as a present, not shop-bought. Happy Christmas you you and your family from Jersey, Channel Isles.
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I know your Christmas will be gorgeous on those Jersey isles of yours. May the holiday include lots of baked love.
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That’s lovely. Everyone loves a special treat from Grandma. But sorry to hear about his leg. 😦
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After the thrill of a cast, he’s not so thrilled anymore. At five, he can’t work the crutches so is using a wheelchair. Perhaps he’ll slow down the slopes a bit next winter?? Merry, Merry, Carrie.
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All he’s got to do is eat one of those and he’ll be good as new. I believe it! Good work, Grammy! Guess you’ll have to make another batch for the home team. 😀
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The home team is waiting for their own treats. I’m working on it. However, ‘Grammy’ is not a term I fit into. ‘Pammy’ is much more like it. 🙂
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And here I thought “Grammy” was part of a secret cloaking technology, capable of hiding all sorts of love in its folds. When I became an aunt at age 10, I insisted my nieces and nephews call me Annie instead of Aunt Jil. It stuck. So I’ve never been an “official” aunt. And since my son is only 12, I’ve got a long way to go before I see myself as a Grammy. Maybe I’ll want to be called “Grannie” when the time comes. 😀
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Probably Grannie Annie will fit just right. 🙂
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When you’re far away, doing something like you did is the best way to remain connected to the lives that matter most. You done good!
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Thanks – and I don’t want to be forgotten. So a package of cookies and a card every month or so is not a bad way for a Pammy to keep the love goin’. Happy Holidays to you!!!
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Sounds ideal. You’re a great grandmother, or maybe I should say a wonderful grandmother! 😉
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The littles are fearless on the slopes – luckily they heal pretty quickly, too.
No doubt your cookies will be the memory this year. A gift from the heart – perfect
May your Christmas be merry and bright!
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And warm! The holidays have been happily warm in this neck of the woods. No skiing in New England right now. Which is probably good news for me, because I’m neither fearless any more on the slopes, nor a fast healer. In fact, the best thing about skiing is staying in the lodge with some hot cocoa in front of the fireplace. 🙂 To smiles and sun and cookies and love in the New Year.
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I´m sure those cookies did the trick. Nothing like home baking filled with love. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!!
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Yesterday was 65 degrees and sunny – almost “Spain-like” weather! But I didn’t wear my sandals. :-0 Hope you had a marvelous holiday and can ring in the New Year with smiles and hugs.. . and flip flops.
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Pam, you did the magical healing “thing” and it worked it’s magic on me. I felt the distance melt between the past baker and her recipes sent to the “Turbo” skiing grandson. . . Across miles and time. Makes me wish to dig through my Mom’s recipe book which holds yellowed index cards (“ancient texts” 🙂 ) written in my grandmother’s handwriting. ♡♡♡♡ to Turbo, family and you, Pam.
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Ahhh, those old recipes from grandmother’s/friends past are the BEST. That’s one of the reason I still write and share recipes – I hope that decades after I’m gone, they’ll still be used, and my spirit will somehow be inside the meal/baked goods. Weird, huh?
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What an endearing post!
I have often wondered what is it in our genes that makes Love and Sacrifice with no expectations such a one-way street that it flows downwards to our children and grand-children. While those ‘smiles’ that flow up do hold the capacity to melt lava as you say, they are never without expectations. Is this some innate way to protect and survive the species?
Shakti
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Thank you for traveling this way to roughwighting. Interesting question. I like to think that “Love” is beyond explanation for genetic description. That it’s actually something deep deep within us – if we drill far enough, and allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough, to let the love shimmer out.
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How sweet of you! Nothing in the world as good as grandmother’s love in a baked treat! Poor little guy. I’m sure he will heal even quicker now! 😉
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I hear he ate them all and is racing around while scooting on his rear (since crutches don’t work well with a 5-year-old). 🙂
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They look really delicious.
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They WERE (the operative word here is WERE, since they are long gone). 🙂 Nothing better for a baker than to see how quickly her goodies are eaten up. 🙂
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Are you taking orders? 🙂 Even the description was so beautiful and vivid that I could practically smell the melted chocolate chips and love intermingling in my own oven (which sadly is empty and cold…) So sorry about your little guy, but he looks none the worse for wear in that picture. Tough little peanut!
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Tough little peanut – what a grand description of my 5-year-old with cast and a great tush for sliding from one room to the other. 🙂
I hope your oven gets some heat on, with a bit of melting chocolate in the new year.
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Love is the magic ingredient! I hope your grandson is healing nicely. All the best to you in 2016!
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His bone healed in 4 weeks! Oh, to have the strong bones of the young. 🙂 Happy New Year!
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Gram Pam on it. Sweet Gram on it.
How hard it must have been to be so, so far away.
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I’d rather have mailed myself instead of the cookies, but perhaps a 5-year-old boy prefers the sweet(er) stuff. 🙂 Seeing him in two weeks – YAY.
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