My daughter Millie made this amazing Swiss Roll a few days ago. She knew I was going out, and she was happy to have the kitchen all to herself for a fun baking project.

I was gone all day at the 5th Avenue Theater with my friend Sheryl; she invited me to The Sound of Music “sing along” for my birthday. It was kind of like seeing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, except for older folks, haha. There was swag, and at the beginning they had a costume contest, and then they coached us on things to say and do during the movie. There were, of course, those that took the liberty of coming up with their own hysterical things to shout at the screen.

Swag for audience participation

When I got home, Millie was still working on her Swiss Roll. She had tried to make a substitution for whipping cream with milk and butter, which did NOT work, so Matthew and Mara ran off to the grocery store to get the real thing. Millie took it all in stride. In the end, her Swiss Roll was amazing. She used the recipe from Preppy Kitchen. The chocolate sponge was tender and flavorful, the whipped cream had just the right hint of sweetness, and the chocolate ganache added the perfect pop of intense chocolate flavor, as well as a beautiful sheen.

The perfect roll, worthy of a Paul Hollywood handshake

I’m sure if I tried to make it, I would have been a nervous wreck. Millie says I worry too much about these kinds of things, and she’s probably right. The only time I ever attempted to make a rolled cake (Bûche de Noël), was back when I was in college, and I made the dessert for a Christmas celebration with family and friends. The cake cracked, making it difficult to spread the chocolate mousse filling, and impossible to roll. It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t stop me, and everyone loved it. So fast forward to this evening, speaking of things not going well.

My favorite split pea soup, mid process

I was making split pea soup for dinner. It had been a long day. I was tired and hungry. This split pea soup recipe is absolutely one of my favorites, and I was looking forward to having it for dinner. The finishing touch is taking an immersion blender (I love my immersion blender) and blending the simmering peas and sauteed veggies into a velvety purée. So good. So I took my immersion blender and got it going, when suddenly it made a horrible noise. And I noticed something big and gray floating in the soup. I had forgotten to remove the safety guard from the blade end of the blender, and part of it got shredded into the soup! Millie ran into the kitchen to see what all the commotion and noise was; I was practically in tears. She helped me fish out pieces of plastic from the soup. I was so disheartened, and felt way too tired to put a Plan B into action. And here’s the craziest part: Matthew and I ate the soup. Don’t judge us. I watched in disbelief as Matthew picked out a few little pieces of shredded plastic that Millie and I had missed. It reminded me of a story Matthew told at a dinner party, way back in the days before we were dating.

Our first date was a hike to the top of Mount Si.

The story went something like this: His grandmother made biscuits for his grandfather, back when they were newlyweds, and the biscuits came out so hard that the two of them went outside and threw them at the passing-by train cars, laughing all the while. I will never forget hearing Matthew tell this story, and if you know Matthew, you will know that he told it much more eloquently and with many more interesting details than I just did. Hearing him tell that story, something touched my heart, and that was when I started falling in love with him. Tonight, we both laughed at the shredded plastic soup fiasco, and I told him that it would be a story to rival the old one of his grandparents and the tough biscuits. We laughed again. And then to put everything right, we sat down and had a piece of Millie’s Amazing Swiss Roll.