How to make candy & my THREE year anniversary

My parents LOVE telling stories of when my twin, Anna, and I were little. They like telling us those stories a lot. Some of the stories have become a permanent part of my childhood memories, and I can't even tell if I remember those things happening or I just remember the stories. I guess at this point it doesn't really matter.

Some of the stories involve me coming up with my own foreign language and singing songs in that language; others are about the time I took a mini toy tea kettle and hit Anna in the eye because she was stealing my toys; yet others are about food. Shocking.

Apparently, when I was just three years old, I invented a recipe for making candy. This is how that recipe went (try to imagine me at 3, same facial expressions, same curly hair and round face, but speaking in Russian with a slightly exaggerated intonation):

Take water. Mix, mix, mix, mix, continue to mix, and you'll end up with milk candy.

I'm guessing this is about the right age. I'm on the right. Photo credit: Leonid Berman (my dad).

I had to call my mom yesterday to get the details of this story straight. Yep. Just water. And mix. And you'll get milk candy. My mom said that my "milk candy" supposedly resembled the butterscotch candy you  have in the US.

One day, my mom was taking Anna and me on a crowded public bus in Moscow to our kindergarten. I was sitting in one of the seats and quite loudly  (shocker!) was describing my how to make candy recipe to everyone on the bus...or whoever was willing to listen. Turns out, a woman sitting next to me looked up and asked my mom with complete and utter seriousness whether the candy was really good. I'm so not making this up!

Perhaps that's when my love of creating recipes was born. Luckily, the recipes you see on this blog are made with more than water. Some of you have replicated them and have let me know that they work. I can't be happier.

Fast forward about 4 years, and Anna and I started presenting my parents with what we called little suppers. We were only seven years old. Those were the days in Russia where typical sandwiches consisted of bread, butter and maybe cheese or salami. That was too boring for Anna and me. We included tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and whatever else my parents had in the refrigerator. Then we would cut the sandwiches into little triangles or squares and proudly present them to our parents on a large cutting board: little supper. I'm pretty sure this was the beginning of our love affair with tapas. {Thank you to my mom and dad for cleaning up the kitchen mess for us!}

Years later I taught English at a children's summer camp in Israel and stayed with a host family. My host father was a professional tomato grower and also grew mango trees behind his family's house. I was happy beyond words.

Am I rambling? Perhaps. Somehow all these experiences (and oh so many more!) have made me who I am and have contributed to my love of food. And that love of food helped me create and sustain Mango & Tomato for the last three years! Happy birthday to my little blog :)

The photos below are from 2007 and were taken by one of my family members. Also, thank you Nikki for taking a photo of me holding tomatoes at the Eat Write Retreat this weekend.

And now a big THANK YOU to everyone who has read my recipes, replicated them in their kitchens, commented, asked me questions and provided advice, criticism and encouragement. I could not have done it without all of you.

I have a BIG favor to ask. During one of the panels at Eat Write Retret I attended/photographed this weekend, Jennifer Perillo said how important it is to know who your audince is and what they want. So PLEASE, if you are reading this, leave me a comment, tell me who you are and let me know what you'd like to see on Mango & Tomato in the next year. I would love to hear from you!!!