Spoonfuls of Sugar

Karen Segall enjoys the sweet life.

- JANE MARION

On a bright fall day in October, Karen Segall’s stately, 1930s-era Stevenson home is filled with the sweet smell of scented candles. But most days, especially on Sundays when she’s putting together care packages, it smells like some heavenly combination of breakfast treats, such as her son Ben’s favorite banana chocolate-chip pecan muffins; cookies, like her daughter Annie’s favorite chocolate-chip variety; or cakes coming straight out of the oven. “With my kids away at college, every Monday, I’m at the post office mailing them care packages,” says Segall. “It’s the smell of the butter and sugar and things baking in the oven that they say they miss most.”