This stuff is so much better than canned soup. If you don’t have a Parmesan cheese rind, Kroger sells containers of rinds in the fine cheese area. Those rinds are small & kind of fussy to pick out of the soup, though. I’d rather buy a wedge of real-deal Parmesan & use the rind from…
Mango Smoothie
I went to an estate sale this morning in a beautiful, gated neighborhood. Parking was prohibited inside the gates, but a couple of sales staff in golf carts shuttled shoppers and looky-loos in from lushly landscaped neighboring streets. I didn’t buy the life-sized ceramic armadillo, although it would have made a superb wedding present for…
Maple Pecan Pie
Take it as proof that this is good pie: We polished it off before it occurred to me to snap a photo. This one’s for you, S. I’ve been making pecan pie for a long time. I like the syrupy goodness of the old-fashioned kind, full of toasted pecans and jiggly goo*. Homemade pastry is…
Tomato & Ricotta Bruschetta
Tomato bruschetta is summer on a plate. If you grow your own tomatoes or buy them fresh off the vine at a farmers market, you won’t need to do much more than chop, salt, and spoon them over toasted slices of ciabatta, flavored with a little garlic and olive oil. A chiffonade of basil over…
Strawberry Pie
This recipe is for me, or rather, for my future self in April or May of every next year until I am planted. Mid-spring is when strawberries in Arkansas fulfill their finest destiny as luscious, flavorful fruit, ripe to the core. I see no reason to eat strawberries any other time of year, or to…
Coconut Cream Pie
Hello, it’s me. I was wondering if after all these months you’d like… …a recipe?* Spring evening with my husband and dear friends. Narcissus blooming tall in the big clay pots. A space station sighting.** Coconut Cream Pie. Pretty perfect. Coconut Cream Pie (This recipe is a mash-up of the best ideas from several sources,…
Snapshot: Creamy Tomato Soup
Today was cold and sunny. Lunch was hot, homemade tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side. Such goodness took the sting out of spending the rest of the afternoon balancing the checkbook and chasing a phantom $153 charge. I put a big pinch of dried saffron in the pot as the…
Meyer Lemon Curd
The petite woman knocking gently on the door of ER bay 17 last Wednesday opened it slightly and poked her head through. “May I come in?” she said softly. Everyone else had rapped loudly and bustled in and out. I nodded and moved to make room for her near the gurney where my father lay….
Chicken Cutlets with Mustard-Cream Sauce
Wednesday afternoon. Last to-do: pick up some Chardonnay to serve with chicken cutlets, steamed rice, and broccoli. Kai the husky was riding shotgun, his preference any time a car door is open. Sometimes he even settles behind the steering wheel, and I have to flat out tell him he can’t drive. We had just left the…
Six-Minute Egg
Most of the year, clients pay my lawyer husband in the official currency of the United States and its overseas territories, i.e., the American dollar. That makes it convenient for paying our mortgage and associated household expenses. But periodically, most often in December, different currencies appear. Expressions of friendship and gratitude, they take the form of…
Cookbook Wall 