The Sweetness of Memory

Author's Note:

After reading a bit from other writers, I thought I would join in the fanfiction fray. Feel free to guess which one. Lol!

Btw, yes, I do love coffee

The Sweetness of Mind

"Phoebe, this is crazy! " a voice said. " I don't remember you even doing anything with the oven other than baking frozen pizza"

"Jeez, Mel. Thanks for the vote of confidence." 

Melanie followed her younger sibling into the kitchen, shaking her long dark hair away from brown eyes. Her full lips slowly formed a grin on her broad features as she watched Phoebe raiding the kitchen in a frenzy. She had to admire her younger sister for her manic energy. Where that energy goes, is anyone's guess.

"It's got to be in here somewhere" she said as she opened cabinet after cabinet in her search. She had already taken out 3 books from the closet and had found a fourth in her search through the cabinets. The kitchen island was beginning to look more like a library table at the university, scattered with index cards from an old card file box, hand written notes that had fallen out of the cookbooks and half-torn pages.

"Phoebe, Grams never wrote that recipe down. She told me that specifically." Mel pulled up a stool and put her empty coffee cup down, carefully avoiding the every growning pile of books.

Phoebe turned to face her older sister whose face was almost obscured by Baking Made Easy. Her heart shaped face framed by curly brown locks already had the look that Mel could automatically read without even thinking about it. Phoebe's face told all and there was no way not to read it.

Of course, Mel knew that she was not such a poker face herself, but what's the fun of being the older sibling without a few perks? She got up and went to the coffee machine for a refill.  

"Mel, what are talking about? Grams wrote everything down. She has tons of cook books in this house. I just need to find the right one. "

Leaning against the kitchen island, she sighed. "Grams said that this cookie, the Charm Cookie, had ingredients that could not be written down and it's always been the family tradition that the one doing the baking had to do it all from memory."

She be paused for moment to pour the cream and stir it into the cup.

"I am not sure what the lesson is for this one but I am sure that there is a lesson there somewhere." 

Phoebe looked at Mel expectantly. "Wait a sec. You? She greener you the recipe? You know that it was only passed down to one family member and it's you?" 

Mel shook her head after taking another sip of coffee.

"I only ate the Charm cookies, I didn't make them or watch Grams bake them.  No one was allowed to watch her bake those. You remember that."

Phoebe sighed and nodded.

"I was hanging out with my girlfriend at that time..I don't know the recipe and no she never passed it down to me."

"They were sooo... good!" Phoebe pulled up a stool and sat at the kitchen island and considered her predicament.  A few of the recipe boxes fell off the island and scattered onto the floor.

She had so wanted to make the cookies for her visiting cousins who had never had heard of the Charm cookies from other relatives but have never tasted the absolute magic that was in them. " I remember the smell. I want to say that it was like gingerbread but I also thought it was like licorice."

Mel smiled as she embraced the earliest memories. She was about 8 years old when she had a sampling of the very first batch. The coffee, even as sweet as it was, paled in comparison to the Charm Cookie.

"Yeah, they were incredibly soft, too. They stayed warm for awhile too. It was if they had that 'fresh from the oven' feel about them even hours after they had come out. I don't know how she did it. Cousin Macy loved them and kept trying to coax Grams into giving her the chemical composition" 

" Yeah she was always the little scientist I remember, cousin Piper kept after Grams too. She tried all kinds of bribery to get that recipe. Now she's a top chef in LA and Macy is the head of a lab in D.C.."

Suddenly, Phoebe's eyes grew wide as she stood up suddenly.  "That's it!"

Mel face creased in a quizzical frown Phoebe had run out of the kitchen and came back with a small piece of paper

"Memory!" she exclaimed " and magic.

"What are you talking about?"

Phoebe paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "You and I remember the Charm cookies and remember how good they tasted right?"

"Yeah, of course"

"Maybe it's our memory that is the real secret. You know that when she baked them, there was always a gathering and she would always tell everyone the tale of how this recipe had been passed down generations in our family and was never written down."

"Right and she always stressed that it was a secret that could only be passed down to one family member at a time. She even said it required a little magic. She really sold that story. So this was a sort of marketing gimmick."

Realization dawned on both of them. Mel rolled her eyes put her right hand to her top of her head. "And one of her favorite childhood stories was The Emporer's New Clothes and now we know why!"

"Right! So what we could do is use one of the existing recipes and include the ingredients that we believe were there and then... and then just tell the story and they will believe it... because.."

" Because they always believe the story."Mel finished.

Mel shook her head She knew it would work. Once again, their crafty grandmother had struck again. Grams famous, secret family recipe, The Charm Cookie had a sweetness that was all in the mind.