Red Shoes

The other day I had a first. I bought a cookbook purely because it was "cute". It had nothing to do with the recipes or even the pictures of the food. It had nothing to do with the humongous "sale" sticker on the cover. I just thought it was cute, plain and simple. It was just the right size, the layout was unique and nostalgic in a way. Once Mark arrived home I immediately grabbed it and said, "look how cute!" Our friends came by for dinner and once again I fetched it and proclaimed "look at the cute cookbook I just got!" Seeing the glimmer in my eyes as I flashed it this way and that they could not state that they thought otherwise. I could tell that there was a bit of a lack of understanding of why I thought this book was so great. It was like it had some spell on me and I couldn't help but just look at it for a few days. The recipes actually did look pretty sound, so I decided to try one out. I tried out a cookie recipe because who could screw that up? Turns out my cookies looked EXACTLY not like hers AT ALL. The kids ate them because they still had the butter and sugar thing going on but the only way I could explain why I didn't care for them to Mark was simply that "they are too puffy and they taste like someone else's!" "Huh?" Mark has learned to accept my quirks but at times he needs me to further explain myself. "You know it tastes like the cookies you would have when you went to someone else's house when you were growing up." Needless to say, the perplexed look on his face did not change. I decided to give up trying to explain myself.
Anyway, it wasn't until today that I realized what drew me to this book. It was the cover picture of the red shoes. I have always had a thing for red shoes. When I was younger I had some red sandals and then it was some red keds that I decorated myself with puffy paints, then my converse low tops and I have always had at least one pair of red shoes since. My daughters all have red shoes and you know what? They have loved them as much as me. They go with nothing and that makes them go with everything. When I look down at my red shoes, it just makes me smile. I don't know why, they just do.
The cover of this book had the red shoes that really took me back. Since the great cookie fiasco I did try another recipe, chicken croquettes and they were really good. I kind of found myself wishing they were jalapeno poppers, but they were tasty just the same. So, that is my narrative of my latest purchase. The only thing that made it more "cute" for me was when Maya pulled it off the bench and was reading it on the floor, lollipop in mouth, singing her lollipop song. For any of you wondering, the book is called Apples for Jam.