Home > Author > Sasha Martin
1 " Everything depends on the moment the spice hits the pan: whether it sizzles with mouthwatering fragrance or turns to ash. Once, I thought happiness was the sizzle in the pan. But it’s not. Happiness is the spice – that fragile speck, beholden to the heat, always and forever tempered by our environment. "
― Sasha Martin , Life From Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness
2 " There are many dreams in a lifetime – dreams that flourish or flounder for reasons much more complex than can be pinned down to any one person or situation. "
3 " It’s true: A slice of pound cake does wonders to thaw the coldest of days. "
4 " The contortions of the gargoyles were the only therapy we had. "
5 " The easy truth is as much a lie as any. "
6 " My first encounter with a baguette, torn still warm from its paper sheathing, shattered and sighed on contact. The sound stopped me in my tracks, the way a crackling branch gives deer pause; that’s what good crust does. Once I began to chew, the flavor unfolded, deep with yeast and salt, the warm humidity of the tender crumb almost breathing against my lips. "
7 " Most people who have had a rough background will admit there’s something unsettling about finding happiness after difficulty – that even after we unwrap this gift, we don’t know how to stop searching, rummaging, pilfering for something else. We walk haltingly through life, ready for the other shoe to drop. The question is not if, but when. "
8 " As I stand there, staring absently at the stirring pot on the wall, I remember Greg’s words all those years ago: No one could create peace for me. Yes, I did the tough work to heal on my own. But in the process I’d missed the finer point. An insular life is just another wall. The realization rushes over me: There can be no peace without community. Real community – people to count on, and who could count on me. "
9 " There’s no such thing as half family. "
10 " The drinking, the skipping school – all of it – was about regaining some sort of control. That night I felt there just might be enough magic in the world to help me through constant upheaval and loss. What I didn’t realize was that the more I drank, the less in control I was. "
11 " And like a grieving spouse who sleeps in the shirt of a lost loved one, I thought that by cooking – handling ingredients again, breathing in their aroma as they bubbled – I could somehow be reunited with my mother again. "
12 " But I wanted to cook. I needed to cook. Mom had raised me with the implicit understanding that cooking is the answer to all life’s vicissitudes – not just the antidote to boredom, but also a way to ward off the darker realities of grief, separation, and loneliness. "
13 " You need a name for every stage of your life. Butterflies don’t go by ‘caterpillar’ forever.And they certainly don’t go by ‘pupa’ one second longer than they have to. You, my dear, are no longer a pupa. "
14 " I don’t think the homesickness of a perpetual wanderer can ever be quenched. "
15 " Over the years, the kitchens I grew up in and around continued to draw me in, like a moth to a flame, as though I might recapture whatever innocence I’d lost in that warm, fragrant space. "
16 " A name alone cannot keep a heritage alive. "
17 " Happiness is not a destination: Being happy takes constant weeding, a tending of emotions and circumstances as they arise. There’s no happily ever after, or any one person or place that can bring happiness. It takes work to be calm in the midst of turmoil. But releasing the need to control it—well, that’s a start. "
18 " The better part of wisdom is turning failure into victory. You have to complete the transition. "
19 " All you can be is you. Your true self shines with more beauty than your mind can ever know. "
20 " When I don’t know what to do about something,” she tells me, “I just leave the idea alone for a while. A good idea will feed itself and grow. A bad one will disappear—as it should. "
