Recently, thumbing through Donna Hay’s delightful book, “Christmas Feasts and Treats” (2018), a book I purchased a few years back and continue to peruse (whether it’s Christmas or not)… I really thought I wanted to make nearly everything in it. [T]he book is beautiful, so visually appealing in its offering […]
I wrote recently of an inspiring book documenting a year in an Irish garden. Between it, the current stay-at-home orders and my own spring fever, I’ve been spending more time out back, with my trees and plants, in a bleary-eyed, sun-induced kind of green-fogged nature dream. In my meditative times […]
On the list (which is long) of vegetables that are underrated, we come to one with whom I’ve had a long relationship. The lowly cabbage, the stuff of children’s stories and children’s toys, the butt of many a “bubble-and-squeak†joke, the bad guy (growing up) for many years merely boiled […]
[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] have no idea how I came to be here so long that I had not only never made nor eaten spoonbread. Coming from a household that was decidedly Southern, despite their geographic location, it seems odd that this delightfully moist cousin of cornbread never graced our holiday or potluck […]
[I] don’t like competition, but like many other beings at times compromised by human nature, I often fall under the spell to compete and compare with others. It’s a losing battle, really. As a very wise friend once told me, comparing yourself to others is “dangerous.†No matter what, if […]
[P]eople may joke about the Irish and potatoes, but the true story of what happened to the Irish in the 1800s is no laughing matter. If you know anything about the Great Famine, you know the Irish were oppressed on their own land, forced into tenant farmer-hood, working on properties […]
[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 […]
[F]or a springtime bread, I mused over something light and bright, something I’d long wanted to make. Popovers. They seemed to carry a mystique…they were made with a special pan…the oven door could not be opened while baking or ruin would befall them…they were American spinoffs of Yorkshire pudding. I […]
[S]pring heralds with it certain tastes, pushing up like new grass in a warming earth. I find myself craving mushrooms, and I know why. Years ago, our springs were spent in pursuit of them in the wild. While other families played miniature golf, we scavenged the brush- and tree-clotted timber, […]