In commemoration of my latest career milestone, I was given a token of my very first: a framed Captain Noah Clean Plate Award. ⁠
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Captain Noah (and his magical ark) was a fixture on our local TV station. My mom had sent away for the award; I was maybe four. My dad framed it. It hung in our basement next to a day camp plaque for “Mermaid of the Day” and an original collage of string and glitter. ⁠
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The Clean Plate Award now lives in my studio. My mom brought it to Brooklyn for #thenimblecook launch last April. I hung it between press clippings and a hand-drawn note from my daughter’s fourth grade class. I prefer map pins to frames, so the award stands out somewhat grandly among the papers, whose edges curl with kitchen steam.⁠
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