Stories 2018
(Click on the photo to read a story.)
Turning Point
Kaylee Correa
In the kitchen to learn the recipes of Japanese ancestors, the mother/daughter relationship changed.
The Collector
Lucy St. George
Nobody knew what interesting character might join the family at the table, winter or summer, because Mum thought of a stranger as a friend not yet met.
Going Home
Carmen Fields
The recipe for Mom's light-as-a-feather rolls came from the white lady that Grandma worked for.
Christmas Morning
Brana Dane
Some things never change: Mom's exaggerated memories, and Finnish pancakes for a holiday breakfast.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus
Jennifer Sanz
Learning to accept one another is a bumpy road for mother and daughter. Lasagna helps.
Chaos and Sugar Cookies
Virginia Rand
It was a miracle that in the midst of chaos, Mom would be so tender and considerate as to stop and put on music to bake cookies with her kids.
Messy, But Irreplaceable
Jennifer Hobbs
In a holiday-obsessed family, the weeks of preparation lead to a golden moment of calm: Mom's sticky buns on Christmas morning.
Home For the Holidays
Gabrielle Culmer
Through her creativity and contacts, lavish holiday parties were Mom's way of investing in her daughter's future.
Sauce, Eggplant, Sauce
Emily Browning
In which Eggplant Parmesan is the greatest form of love.
Tasting Ancestry
Peggy Lampman
Generations have served oyster stew for Christmas breakfast. But a granddaughter's first Christmas will be spent with a group of oyster infidels.
A Real Mother
Linda Thorburn
It's hard being a teen. It's probably harder when you're adopted. Can Christmas baking help make peace?
Divinity
Jennifer Conway
In a little mining town near the High Sierras, mother and daughter make divinity (and get most of it in their hair).
Mirror Image
Christina Peck
There were typical teenaged clashes, but the kitchen was a place where mother and daughter often resolved their differences.
Tastes Like Home
Katy Keck
Mom found her recipe for Turkey Tetrazzini in a sorority cookbook—a tradition of sisterhood that she passed along to her own daughter.
A Very Brady Thanksgiving
Annette Foglino
Both mother and stepmother were awed by an unconventional Italian grandmother's culinary skills.
A Letter To My Daughter
Beth Johnson
Thanksgiving nostalgia for a simpler time, all the way back to a rural farm in Mississippi.
Laughing Through the (Onion) Tears
Sammi Haber Brondo
For one mother and daughter, a big part of Thanksgiving fun is figuring out how not to cry over cutting onions.
Don't Tell Your Mother
Heidi Mender
A mother learns to make the perfect noodles for chicken soup and the ideal crust for blackberry pie to help her daughter recover from surgeries.
Cheese On A Stick
Natalie Bross
The best days always ended up in the food court at the local mall with Mom.
The Marriage Trance
Patsy Whitely Beckett
Making a traditional cornmeal porridge for their daughter was a peace offering and symbol of unity for dueling parents of different cultures.
Morning Glory
Katherine B. Weissman
For the kitchen-averse, a prescribed social role looms as a burden, an unwelcome destiny based on gender rather than desire or talent.
Love In A Cold Climate
Gabriella Weekes
Mum didn't speak a word of English when she arrived in London, but the connection to her Nicaraguan roots—the memories and the tastes—went with her.
Less Is More
McKenzie Moser
Dinner was ready when the smoke alarm sounded. But grabbing a meal with Mom still meant something.
Have You Eaten?
Clara Grecuccio
Getting through a beloved mother's surgery was made easier by thoughts of her orange cake.
Crunchy Mom
Jennifer Sisco Porretta
Eating was survival for generations of her Yugoslavian family. Now she wants to give her children something more: food that’s an expression of love.
Trustworthy People
Cindy Garrard
Two young mothers, one from South Korea, one from Mexico, begin a lifelong friendship by sharing food for their children in a New Jersey park.
Not Always Gourmet
Amy Goddard
With its endless cheap food and entertainment, the local mall was a baby-sitter for a young mother going through a divorce.
Milk and Honey
Gabrielle Schafer
An unplanned pregnancy became a symbol of hope for a family in post-war Germany, with a bucolic life of love and comfort foods. And then it was over.
Say What?
Natasha Lewis-Clark
From the mouths of babes.
Understood
Daniela Paiva
Maternal approval means a lot, at any age, and especially in the kitchen.
Like Peg and Kelly Bundy
Shauna Bloom
No matter how much scrubbing and spraying of air freshener ensued, Mom would return from work and exclaim, "Who cooked in this kitchen?"
A Breakfast of Brown
Sonia Kirpalani
From addiction to aspiration—a daughter fights the legacy of drugs left by her own mother.
Little White Lies
Shauna Bloom
Mom served health fare; Nannie served buttery garlic bread. Nannie told tall tales; Mom was grounded in reality. A daughter appreciates them both.
It's Complicated
Michelle Scott
When Mom serves low-cal everything and thinks her daughter looks fat in a bikini, body image gets distorted.
Parched
Heather Leary
There was rarely much to eat or drink. But Mom had a night job cleaning offices, where her children would check the refrigerators for food.
A Woman's Place
Monique Magpayo
The gift of an Easy Bake oven opened the world of burnt fingers and traditional Filipino food, even though Mom wanted nothing to do with the kitchen.
Dinner For Two
Molly Deegan
A restaurant dinner alone with Mom seemed the height of sophistication to a pre-teen yearning for adulthood.
The Presence of the Past
Denise Browning
One dish, passed down through generations, can heal a feverish body or a bruised soul.
Shelter
Leeane Melendez Schoener
Even living in shelters, with borrowed kitchen equipment, Mom had a way of making food taste like home.
Tastes Like Love
Alana Ballantyne
Mom’s approach to dinner could be best described as “economic.” But it tasted like love.
Cujones and Cannolis
Clare Paternoster Lowell
Mom would kiss stale bread and say a little prayer before throwing it away so that no one she loved would ever be hungry.
Famished
Suzanne Hollo
Family responsibilities were too great for sit-down dinners together. But frozen Tupperware containers of Mom's meatballs made a fine after-school snack.
Letting Go
Rhonda Gibson
With a culinary heritage of all things Cajun and Creole, a daughter of New Orleans announces to her mother that she's now (quel horreur!) vegan.
Tea For Two
Ariane Malia Reinhart
Mom could find the most delicious meals anywhere in the world. It was at afternoon tea in Paris where a daughter found they could break emotional ground.
Chaos Theory
Renee Irvin
Mom tried to work in a velvet cocktail outfit she made on a pedal foot sewing machine. But there was often nothing to eat until family came to the rescue.
Out of the Shadows
Pilar Carling
An independent woman—a teacher who loved words—ages into a fog of unknowing. Her daughter helps lift the fog with…tater tots.
Anything For Love
Wasina Rukvichai
A mother known for blackened kitchen disasters does whatever is necessary to stay close to her daughters after their father dies--even learning his recipes.
2000 Miles Pavlova
Alexandra Devitt
Mum moved to the other side of the world. A generation later: like mother, like daughter. But cooking keeps them connected.
The Lunchbox Trade
Priya Bhandari
Mom's reputation for deliciousness spread beyond the family. But her recovery from tragedy was even more remarkable.
Magical Thinking
Debra Borden
Somehow, baking brownies with Mom for a beloved brother and his fellow soldiers at war seemed to keep the troops safe.
The Tipping Point
Lorraine Devon Wilke
Eleven children in a tiny house in a tiny farm town—and Mom’s larder emphasized margarine and cream of mushroom soup. But Grandma was Greek.
The Taste of Love
Gwen Ruhoff
A lifetime is preserved in the pages of a homemade recipe book, and there is love in every bite.
Homeland Security
Victoria Bubel
How to stay connected to family and Russian heritage, thousands of miles apart? Cooking, via Skype.
Let Me Show You
Tracy Ann Chapel
A daughter yearns for the love of a woman bitterly disappointed in motherhood, and finds some peaceful respite at the stove.
A New Life (x 2)
Jas Brechtl
They made their way from war-torn Bosnia to America, a beacon of freedom, with cooking as a connection to the past.
Sweet Revenge
Liliana Guimaraes
Mom made fabulous crispy doughnuts—based on Portuguese and African traditions—especially to please Dad’s sweet tooth. Then Dad left.
Raspberry Season
Allegra D'Agostini
From tearing up Mom's garden for rose petal "soup" to gorging on luscious summer fruit along a rural path, memories of a Canadian farm childhood.
The Finicky Eater of Pease Street
Cordelia Sands
Her Bahamian family defined a new neighborhood, and fresh local catch produced delicious dinners. But not for a dramatic and devious child.
Weight Watching with Mommy
Barbara Lippert
With perfect thinness an almost unattainable goal, a lot of childhood was spent watching Mom watch her figure with Weight Watchers.
A Language of Love
Madeline Smith
Sometimes a true Mom is someone else.
The Entrepreneur
Sapna Kumar
As her mother embraced American culture, the Indian home cooking of her heritage got left behind—which was fine with her daughter, until it wasn't.
Moxie
Rosina Rucci
Like many of her Italian neighbors in South Philadelphia, she had no filters or fear, and left an indelible impression in the kitchen.
The Wiz
Bertha Iñiguez
A daughter comes to understand her mother as a sweet soul with a tough life, transported from Mexico to Iowa, and still feeding the world.
Satisfaction
Anna L. Moine
A not-skinny mother of skinny girls shares the abiding satisfaction of good food that begins with her French heritage.
Comrades
Marie Smalley
Mom was a former nun who left the order to have a family. With four boys and four girls in nine years, the only time to relax and engage was while cooking.
Finding Mom In A Coconut
Madeline Brennan
Peeling potatoes and cracking open a coconut, a daughter rediscovers a mother who seemed like a gentle ghost but was there all along.
Three Mothers
Carla Perez-Gallardo
A chef traces her career back to the three matriarchs of her family, who stirred the pots along the way.
A Delicate Balance
Ann-Marie Lariccia
In an Italian family, sauce can enhance, bind, disguise, drown, or overwhelm a meal. And Mom can do the same.
Small Acts of Sweetness
Jessie Oleson Moore
With one of Mom's cupcakes in hand, all is right with the world.
The Dark Side
Isadora Soliman
A daughter of Egypt becomes vegan. It does not go well with her mother. Baklava is the peacemaker.
Mother's Day Special 2018
Our storytellers
Whether you're kissing, missing, or dissing Mom, a collection of anecdotes for the holiday.
The Scotcheroo Lady
Marjorie Kouns
A first generation Greek-American helps win World War II (only a slight exaggeration) and then feeds with the world with her sweets.
My Two Mommies
Anisa Nyell Johnson
Three generations make their lives about service, gratitude, faith, and daring to be different—along with the proper way to snap green beans and shuck corn.
Soft in the Center
Carrie Sieger
Nine kids, eight of them girls, all trying for the same bite of Mom's cookie dough.
No Appetite
Meliora Dockery
A mother cajoles, remonstrates, chastises, and hugs, but can't get her daughter to eat, until....
Drama Queen
Hajer Almosleh
For a decade, Mom lived apart from her four daughters. And when she returned home, she'd forgotten how to cook—or so she claimed.
Bel Paese
Christine Flowers
Three generations of women shared a deep-fried, ricotta-filled, marinara-soaked love of Italian food and tradition.
Significant Simplicity
Serina Bernstein
A simple breakfast, modified over the years, connects four generations of French women.
Magic Time
Sui Nakashima
A Japanese mother gets up at the crack of dawn to prepare a lunchbox for her daughter, but it's leisure time in the kitchen when they share secrets.
Lost—and Found
Catherine Valentine Parish
Time, understanding, and cooking make a fractured mother/daughter bond whole again.
Old Soul
Karine Boulianne
Seeing her daughter grow up in an exotic new world (and take over the kitchen), a French-Canadian mother realizes who's the mature one.
Momisms
Linda E. Simon
She wore perfectly applied scarlet lipstick, but those lips never touched peanut butter or pork chops.
Digging Deeper
Raj Anderson
Arranged marriage, assimilation, estrangement, and ultimately understanding—a powerful Indian odyssey.
At Home
Anne DeSantis
For a home-schooling mom, broad life lessons—and brownies with a surprise twist—are on the curriculum.
The First Hippie
Deirdre Towers
Barefoot, wearing blue jeans and no makeup, Mom was content with her books and bourbon. Then she discovered Julia Child.
I Could Have Danced All Night
Prudence Wright Holmes
Flashback to the days when dinner might include Henny Penny Salad, and the Little Juniors dancing school might produce a young lady.
Shirtwaist Dresses and Bedroom Eyes
Phyllis Pastore
Mom was a character, but one who kept the family together, body and soul (especially in the kitchen).
Biting the Bullet
Kelly Victoria
A revealing conversation with Mom—eased by pecan pie.
Anatomically Correct Easter
Lisa DePaulo
Maria Grazia DiPaolo and her daughter-in-law had issues, ever since the former thought she should have been invited on the latter's honeymoon.
Past My Bedtime
Gabriella Marie
A rare lapse in the rules leads to a memorable night in the kitchen with Mom—and Easter sweet bread.
Fried Cardboard
Margaret Crane
The kitchen was seldom the scene of warm mother-at-the stove moments--with one exception: delicious fried matzoh for Passover.
Mermaids
ReW STaRR
Like Cher as Mrs. Flax in Mermaids, finger foods were a favorite. But it was important to teach her daughters that eating habits could be risky business.
Cheaper By the Half-Dozen
Melissa Jeanne Givey
Quick and easy, in bulk, was the general theme of cooking for a large family, but Irish soda bread was the crown jewel in Mom's kitchen.
Layers
Christine Celozzi
Homemade spaghetti sauce, Chanel No. 5, and bleach—and lessons about respect. That's what Mom is made of.
The Best Thing Since
Robert Redford
Ann Dunaway
A journey away from simple Midwestern style, and back again, to find a connection with Mom.
Sunny Side Up
Joy Curtis
It took decades to meet her mother--and to discover how a simple bacon-and-egg breakfast led to her birth.
In the Soup
Katherine B. Weissman
Two prime (and intrinsically contradictory) obligations for women: making food and losing weight. A look back at one mother's mid-century messages.
Trying Her Best
Shirley Beth Newbery
A challenging childhood with adult responsibilities leads to the art of forgiveness.