If I had to pick a word for my 2025, it would be bittersweet.

This is now the 5th time I’m releasing the Christmas Pudding episode - I love it that much!

But this year, it’s hitting a little bit differently.

I’ve always loved this episode because it’s fun and funny and full of laughter. The conversation was a cherished opportunity to connect with a friend from my youth that lives across the world from me.

But in light of our experiences this year, it’s landing a little differently for me.

This year, I found myself tuned in to a note that’s been right there all along, underneath the humor — the tenderness of Robert and Lisa’s memories.

And I’m wondering - How didn’t I hear it before?

The way these traditions didn’t just hold joy for Robert and Lisa, but also the pain of absence and loss?

Like the thestrals in Harry Potter, the truth is, we can’t see what we can’t see.

But sooner or later, the events of life will afford all of us, hopefully, an ever expanding vision.

And here’s that word, bittersweet, again - In a dish, bitterness doesn’t cancel the sweet. Rather, orange zest will balance - more than, it will sharpen and amplify the sugar in a dish, allowing us to taste it more fully.

And so, as life changes us, expands us, and makes us more attuned to other notes, may we not forget the purity, the clarity, the melody of life’s sweetest moments, which are so often found in our traditions.

But with some pain and in some seasons, this is not reasonable or respectful

And in that case, may the bitterness of this broken world point us — as Robert and Lisa do at the end of this episode — to the eternal love of God.

Emmanuel, God with us - So gloriously on display, each and every Christmas.

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For many of us, Athens is inseparable from ancient—towering colonnades blinding white in the Mediterranean sun, rowdy crowds packed into massive amphitheatres, then those same crowds dispersing into balmy evenings washed in golden light, the 195 The Honest Magiría and Its Humble Chickpea Soupsmell of olive oil and roasted chickpeas drifting through the air.

But what about the Athens of the last eighty years? The last thirty or ten? A city shaped by occupation, migration, rebuilding, prosperity and globalization, then crisis and austerity?

Today’s guest, Diane Kochilas, has written a cookbook that does what I now consider essential for any cookbook I recommend: it is a book only she could have written. Part memoir and part modern history of her adopted city, Athens, she writes with the authority of the food journalist she once was, sharing dishes from over 100 Athenian restaurants (and modern home kitchens). The book contains the fresh recipes of today’s Athens, shaped by new arrivals and new ideas.

But in this episode, as in her cookbook, Diane honors Diporto—a restaurant that has steadfastly weathered all of these changes, remaining a constant for every class and community in Athens. And we celebrate Diporto’s simple five-ingredient soup made from those staples of ancient Athenian cuisine, chickpeas and olive oil. It’s a dish that reminds us again of the power of food to connect every version and every iteration of a city into one continuous and beautiful story.

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Diane's Website: www.DianeKochilas.com

Buy her latest book Athens

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Today’s guest Lynn describes Maria — just like a glowing fairy come to life: barely five feet tall, vivacious, chatty and outgoing, and as charming as they come.

So imagine this tiny Maria 100 years ago, just a teenager tripping over the cobblestone streets of Budapest, chatting with her friends, then opening an heavy, ornate and entering a cafe -

And quickly, let’s replace our images of a “cafe” - the cafes of 20th century Budapest were grand, glittering spaces. Picture soaring ceilings multiple stories high, crystal chandeliers, marble pillars, rich, heavy window treatments, carved staircases, and waiters in tuxes.

Tucked in the corners were the who’s who of Budapest - poets, intellectuals, and artists.But Maria and her girlfriends were simply there to do their homework — giggling, whispering, and flirting like any teenagers over the clinking of silver spoons against porcelain coffde cups.

Maria, the daughter of a cafe owner herself, knew and loved all the famous cafes - and they loved her. In fact, as family legend has it, she charmed the pastry chefs into sharing their best recipes for tortes and cakes.

A century later, Lynn opened a nondescript box and discovered fifty-two of Maria’s recipes, handwritten in Hungarian. Well — fifty-one of Maria’s recipes. There was one, a simple Walnut Torte, just like what would have been served in those grand cafes, written in English - not by Maria, but by Maria’s daughter-in-law, Janice, who is Lynn’s mother-in-law.

That recipe card from became the basis of the cake Lynn has dubbed “Mother-in-Law Cake” and she shares with us today.

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Lynn's Website: Family Tree Foodie

Lynn's Hungarian Heirloom Walnut Torte on her website

Email Lynn: familytreefoodie@gmail.com

Lynn's Instagram: @familytreefoodie

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The Second World War has started and teenage Dolores stands over a small suitcase laying open on her bed in Columbus, Ohio. She slept in this room through her mother’s three years of illness and the tragic night her mother died, when she was just fifteen.

Some nights, Dolores falls asleep quickly after long days of managing school and a home at that tender age. Other nights, she can't sleep, thinking of her handsome fiancé, Bill Wood — a very young man himself, standing on the brink of battle. But tonight, after Dolores tucked a small white New Testament and a white handkerchief on top of her modest clothing and clicked the suitcase closed, she sat down on the bed and looked around the room as if to say goodbye - not to the room, but to her girlhood. For tonight she may not sleep at all, as she cherishes a very secret hope in her heart - the hope that she will return home to this room as a married woman. Because if all goes well on her trip to Washington State, she will marry Bill. He will go to war as a husband, while she waits, prays, and works for Victory Day.

Today, we hear from the youngest daughter of Dolores, who was always a homemaker first, and Bill, a career baker.

Through their many kitchens - her mother's home kitchens and her father's bakeries - Melissa traces her parent's life of steadfast love and deep devotion: to one another, to their God, and to an institution that, at times, threatened to take advantage of that devotion.

And in that crisis, it was Dolores and Bill’s love for one another — steadfast, selfless, and always protective — that preserved their hearts and family.

We start with a recipe in Dolores’s handwriting, but titled “Dad’s Apple Dumplings”. For what God joined together in Washington State more than 80 years ago, Melissa could not separate — not even when choosing a recipe. 🙂

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The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

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Imagine yourself standing in an English garden, peeking through a small kitchen window into a cozy kitchen. Once you’re close enough, you may even catch the faint strains of Bing Crosby on the radio. A small blonde boy and his sister sit at the table — a blue table, on a blue floor — a surprising color choice, but one that will later make sense when you learn you’re looking into the kitchen of an artist. The little boy and his sister are engrossed in their projects while their Nan takes a loaf out of the oven — and puts another in. Only then do you notice three loaves already cooling on the counter. The old woman says something to the little boy, and his face lights up as he proudly holds out his modeling clay project to his Nan.

This little boy was Sam Harris, who grew up to mirror his Nan in some of the best ways, perhaps more than he even realizes. She owned a business; he’s a serial entrepreneur (and working now on one of my favorite podcasts — more on that later). She was an artist; he is a musician. And she had a gift for making Sam and his cousins feel seen, special, and supported. Speaking personally, I’m in a community where I get to see (and benefit from!) that same gift in Sam today — a thoughtful, humble way of encouraging others.

In today’s episode, we explore all of this through a simple Pineapple Cake — “Sam’s Cake,” as his family called it. The cake was his Nan’s attempt to heal his troubles with food and to instill her old-fashioned values through nurture rather than control.

Most of all, this episode offers a new take — an inversion, if you will — on the old adage “It’s better to give than to receive.”

Sam’s Pineapple Cake tells the story of a family, their matriarch, the values she passed on, and the ways she received the gift of those values in return.

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Where every print tells a story.

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