A Healthy Appetite...Ten days 'til Chemo

This past week, we have enjoyed both a disorienting and a sobering sense of calm. Daniela is well-rested, and has been sleeping soundly. She is more at ease with the expanders, which have absorbed a bit more saline during a recent visit to the plastic surgeon. This addition of sterile brine has literally and figuratively infused her with a welcome buoyancy. At ease in her role as custodian of her interim bosom (It was only a few weeks ago that Daniela taunted her torso with the self-effacing appellation--Frankenbusen.) her recent spells of cheerfulness have managed to (re)enchant our routines. The culinary considerations that diligently arrive at our door have been a precious gift from many friends. These palatable presents have allowed us to spend less time in the kitchen and more time at the dining room table...cooking up stories, dishing glances, and sauteing a bit of silliness...a wonderful family recipe. For this opportunity, we are very grateful. Thank You!

Since so many of you, our local friends, have shared their recipes, I will share one I recently found:

Ingredients:
1 Daniela
1 bathroom with shower
1 towel
1 Ari (seven-year old boy)
1 Gabriela (ten-year old girl)

Ensure your household standards of modesty are comfortably preheated to European Mode. (If they are not...stop reading immediately!) Steam Daniela in the shower, but not for too long, during your average weekday morning rush. Place towel out of Daniela's reach. Stand Gabriela in front of sink to brush her teeth. Throw in Ari, who needed to go to the bathroom in a pinch. Time the conclusion of Ari's streaming with Daniela's exit from the shower. Imagine as the inquisitively candid seven-year old looks at his mother and asks, "Mama...were have your pimples gone?!" Sprinkle generously with bubbling laughter from both mother and daughter as they correct Ari's anatomical misnomer. Add more laughter (from Ari).

Servings: One portion, but it will feed a lifetime of retellings.