[I]’ve been pretty obsessed with slice-and-bake cookies for…awhile. Like many things I become obsessed with, I spend most of my time obsessing and not enough time doing. Every Christmas cookie season, it has been my aim to have a catalog of cookie logs in my freezer, ready to go, so […]
[I]s it possible I’ve been hypnotized by a fruit? If so, it is the plum that has seduced me, once again. Fortunately — or not, really — the season is woefully short, but during it, I find myself drawn, again and again, to the stunning array of plums, pluots and […]
“Curving back within myself, I create again and again.†—Bhagavad Gita [I]n recent years, I’ve pondered the word “faith†a lot. I think it’s a term most associated with religion, but beyond that, it is, I think, a firm, reliant belief that there is something beyond us, taking care of […]
[I]’ve written here recently of the October Northern California wildfires, one of the strangest, saddest times I’ve experienced in a while. For those in the fires’ paths of destruction, it was a sheer nightmare. For those of us on the nearby periphery, it was a surreal time, holding in place […]
[I]f something has a flower flavor, I’m on it….like a bee. Recently I was exposed to some delightful imported Italian sodas flavored with, of all things, elderflower! I could not resist. It was a beautiful taste, slightly peachy and as soon as my little fingers could do their walking, I […]
[I] had not considered the obvious parallels of birds and bread and lightness and flight until I made a bird out of bread recently. I had no choice but to make a bird out of bread recently when, in search of an annual Easter bread, I landed on a creature […]
“The Heart wants what it wants, “ poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “– or else it does not care.†[M]y heart, or at least the scones I made into hearts, wanted jam, and who was I to deny them? Scones and jam have gone together since the clocks could strike three […]
[I] like the word “tonic.†It has a reality-based sense of comfort and a tinge of humor for the extent it’s been applied to things that aren’t necessarily…good for you. What it seems to connote most, for me, is something you can make to heal yourself. Whether it’s a hair […]
[I] tend to disregard blackberries. These dark beauties are certainly worth my attention, yet I find myself more likely to veer toward strawberries and blueberries, the brighter and seemingly more versatile of the berry world. It’s not that I don’t find blackberries delicious; I do. Sweet and less tart than […]
[A] few weeks ago, I sat down to begin writing of a delicious hollandaise sauce I had made in the blender, when I read the words of Julia Child in Vol. 1 of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”: “It is extremely easy and almost foolproof to make in the […]