Walter and Me... Pecan Rolls for JoAnn

摘要

She approached me and grabbed my arm and I knew it was serious... it was my cousin, JoAnn. This was the first time I'd seen her since the pandemic began, but I'd shipped and delivered candy to her for its duration. She's one of my best, most loyal - and likely most intense - customers. Where some people lack the courage to tell candymakers where their candy falls short, JoAnn is a single-woman tasting panel - and she pulls no punches. She is descended from a lineage of women who not only know fresh ingredients from cost-cutters, and excellent candy from merely good, but where and to whom to go for their confections of choice. Her candy consumer street cred extends back to knowing multiple generations of confectioners in the Cleveland area, and she pulls from each of them her favorite items into an all-star lineup that she considers the very best. And it is. She's a drive-through-the-blizzard, it's-not-a-special-occasion-without-it, leave-the-gun-take-the-candy type of customer. And she was holding my arm like a vise.