TOO MANY CHOICES. That’s the moral of the story. When we put out the call for your favorite cakes to choose among for our first half-birthday of The Sister Project, you answered, and answered and answered some more. From carrot cake to chocolate, chiffon to mom’s doctored Duncan Hines, basic yellow to damn it, I don’t like cake, how about pie? you have given us more sweet suggestions than we could eat in a lifetime of birthdays. And that’s how it is with sisters, I’m told: You just keep the love and sweet ideas flowing. Me, I’m off to a party, and I’m bringing that delicious concoction you see up above. Because when in doubt: eat chocolate. Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions, and especially for not suggesting this.
by paige on April 8, 2009
The River, celebrating Passover at age 3
I WROTE THE ESSAY that follows in 2006, and it appeared in 2007 on a (sadly, now defunct) website, culturecloud.com, where for a time I wrote and edited, mostly about food and books (is there any better combination?). I thought this was just about Passover when I wrote it, but as it turns out, it’s all about my sister-friends, too.
And this day shall become a memorial for you, and you shall observe it as a festival for the L-RD, for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you observe it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes … you shall guard the unleavened bread, because on this very day I will take you out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. – Exodus 12:14-17
Last year around this time, my 4-year-old son announced that we needed to have a seder, at our house. “Even though we’re not Jewish?” I asked. “Seders are not just for Jewish people. Christmas people can have them, too.” His tone suggested that no argument would be tolerated. A part of me was delighted, because this time of year, despite a bred-in-the-bone affection for Easter ham, scalloped potatoes and Cadbury eggs, the celebration I await most eagerly is the seder. [click to continue…]
First time here? Here's the idea: 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men. 
As the suffix of its name suggests, 
