Shauna James Ahern's Blog

When our daughter lay in the ICU on her second day of being alive in the world, we stood above her bed and asked her to breathe. Her small hands were strapped to the bed because she was already so strong she nearly ripped out her breathing tube. (Somehow, though, she kept making a Buddhist mudra with her fingers and held it.) Her feet were tangled up in cords and covered in bandaids where the

I made three batches of shortbread yesterday.

Yes, I'm a little nuts. It's the last day of posting holiday cookie recipes around here. After jam tarts, gingerbread men, coconut sugar cookies, cannolis, plus 8 more, you think I'd be done. That's an even dozen, right?

(Plus, if you go over to our friend Silvana Nardone's blog, Dish Towel Diaries, you'll find our recipe for chocolate crackle

Mexican wedding cookies. Of all the requests people had for gluten-free holiday cookies, I think this was the most requested. Finely ground nuts, butter and shortening, gluten-free flours, and powdered sugar. It isn't much more complicated than that. All that deliciousness and it's easy too? Sign me up.

Now this cookie, with tiny variations of shape and technique from kitchen to kitchen, can

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

I'm tempted to write only this. After all, it's the only phrase I hear in my head when someone says cannoli. Probably you too. (And if you don't know what it is, look here. Watch out — you're going to want spaghetti and meatballs after watching this movie.)

However, I want to share just this bit more.

I am constantly astonished by how much better my life

We are coming into the home stretch of holiday cookies and goodies around here. I don't want to think about how many pounds of butter, flours, and sugar have been used in this kitchen the past month. I can't even calculate how many times the paddle of the KitchenAid has whirled around these weeks. Every day I am a little bit tempted to throw up my hands, put away the flours, and lie down on the

This is a cake pop.

It's a cake pop made by my wonderfully talented and lovely friends Jessie (also known as Cakespy) and Megan (also known as Not Martha).If you are lucky enough to know people who want to spend the afternoon with you crumbling up cake with their hands, manipulating marzipan, and making zombie santas into the evening? You know you have good friends.

This is a Rudolph cake

We can't seem to stop buying new cookbooks. I mean, after that list of our favorite 12 of 2010, we should be done for a bit. There are plenty of meals to be made in that towering stack.

However, the lure of another good cookbook is powerful. On the other hand, we can't go broke on cookbooks.

Solution? I've been buying all our "new" cookbooks at thrift stores.

I'm all for the lure of the

All of Proust's remembrances began with one bite of a madeleines.

I have a confession. I still haven't read all of Proust's books. Try as I might, several times, I could never make it past the first 60 pages. Well, you're saying, most of us haven't. I know. But I was a literature major, an English teacher, an avid reader from the age of 2. I've read Ulysses 4 times. Surely I can slog my way

(Holiday candy provided by Indie Candy, which makes allergen-free, delicious candies. I still haven't eaten the chocolate Santa, and Lu's getting the snowflake lollipop for a special treat, in a few weeks. But their gummy candies are some of the best I have ever eaten. If you know someone with food allergies, this is a lovely present.)

Ho ho ho!

Are you feeling any more in the holiday