Gingerbread bricks

While on the subject of food, which we sort of are because of the recent post on worldbuilding with food, here’s an unexpected post at tor.com: Gingerbread Bricks, Cherry-Stealing Cats, and Other Culinary Disasters

I say this post is unexpected because it’s by … … … Patricia McKillip! I bet you didn’t see that coming! Aren’t you a zillion times more interested in clicking through now? Of course you are.

But here’s an excerpt:

My most vivid cooking memory, even after so many years, is setting my brother on fire with my Cherries Jubilee.

I think I wanted to make Cherries Jubilee because of its name. Who wouldn’t? My mother made wonderful cherry pies for years. This was sort of the same thing only without a crust and with a match. A sauce for vanilla ice cream: how hard could that be? Just about all I had to do was pour a shot glass or two of brandy on some warmed cherries and light it up. As Shakespeare put it: “Strange how desire doth outrun performance.” As I ladled cherries into my youngest sibling’s bowl, my hand shook and suddenly there was a blue flame dancing along his blue jeans. I stared at it. He stared at it. The expression on his face mingled amazement that I had set him on fire with a long-suffering lack of surprise. For that one second, both of us wondered what to do. Then I decided: Better me than my brother. I brushed the flame off his knee with my hand and found that fire could be quite cool. His expression changed: for once I had managed to impress him, though it certainly wasn’t with my cooking.

Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy the gingerbread brick story…