1. Do you remember your grandmother, mother, or another family member cooking for you? What was that person’s signature dish? Is there one meal or dish that has been passed down through the generations in your family?

2. Suzan has strong emotional connections to food. What foods bring back pivotal moments in your life?

3. Suzan’s family has a motto that describes how they get through difficult times --- “Putting up Soup.” Do you or your family have a similar motto? If so, does that saying have a different resonance for you today than it did when you were growing up?

4. How did your family handle adversity? What did that teach you about the way you deal with challenging issues and times?

5. What examples in the book show that good things can come from tough times? Has this been your experience?

6. There are a lot of emotions tangled up in money. For example, do you think Matilde, Suzan’s great-great grandmother, was being irresponsible when she spent her family’s food money on vases, or do you feel that sometimes it’s okay to splurge on something meaningful, even if it means going without other things for a while? How does this relate to the credit card crisis our country recently experienced?

7. What foods traditionally served in your family help you trace your origins?

8. In what way do you pass your family’s stories down to your children and grandchildren? Do you have photo albums, recipe books, or a written history? If you pass the stories down orally, would you want to tape record them or be videotaped so that your family’s history could be preserved for future generations?

9. There are plenty of songs written about overcoming adversity. If Suzan’s life and Cherries in Winter were to have a soundtrack, what songs would be appropriate to add to its track list?