Care Packages

think outside of the fruit basket…

I have not been a great friend of late. A couple of The Girls could use a little propping up, a little snarky laughter over lunch, maybe a day of beauty laced with The Macallan 12. But I don’t have time and we can’t seem to synch our schedules, and one lives in Portland anyway.

But I’m not a card girl. You read them once then they linger about until you feel that you’ve surpassed any guilt of throwing them away. And I deeply believe that flowers never live up to what you want them to be. So of course, I send food.

Whose day wouldn’t be lifted by the arrival of a pound of exotic coffee beans? Or a snacky tin of dark chocolate covered candied orange peels? Or the better-than-you-could-ever-hope-to-make caramel apples dipped in Belgian chocolate?

There are two sources I trust for such important deliveries. Dean & Deluca is the best for high quality, high end food that serves as an luxurious treat. I try to send something that the recipient would want, but would pass over as being too frivolous for themselves, like a box of chocolate covered cherries steeped in Armagnac.

I use Zingerman’s to help heal, when the situation calls for food that comforts or provides relief. If I know that someone is hardly holding it together, I might try to make dinner easier. If they are simply sour on life, it might take a variety of cheeses or chocolate to remind them that there is beauty in the world.