I like people who are adventurous eaters, who don’t mind being guinea pigs for new recipes, and who don’t question a cook who asks them to bring a half pound of roast beef to dinner (sliced on the one, in deli speak). That makes S and J some of my favorite diners on the planet,…
Category: Life
Welcome home.
We sent him off in January with Chicken Tortilla Soup and prayers. We welcomed him back this weekend with grilled steaks, that Spinach and Artichoke Dip he likes, and hearts full of gratitude. First born made him a cheesecake for the birthday celebration he missed while Over There. We’re so lucky. And so thankful. On…
Chicken with Beans & Tomatoes
This is one of my top ten favorite recipes. It’s comfort food. Source is Real Simple magazine, and it’s the reason I try to keep pots of oregano and thyme growing on my deck most of the year. Here’s how to make it, with minor adaptations. Chicken with Beans and Tomatoes 2 15.5-ounce cans cannellini…
Snapshot: Easter Table
I planted a garden down the center of my dining table for dinner at sunset on Holy Saturday. Even the nest was real, built two years ago by birds on the ledge of a bathroom window at my house. One of the birds had a decorator’s eye, finishing off the nest with a ruff of…
Twenty-seven Hats (and Honey-Mustard Chicken)
After my mother died several years ago, there were 10,000 details to attend to. I’ll tell you now, it isn’t easy figuring out how to stop an electronically-drafted pension issued from a foreign country through an unknown entity based on employment 55 years earlier by a company that had no record of my mother working…
Roasted Red Snapper
A seafood counter clerk had already packaged my salmon filets by the time I noticed the snappers. My eyes swiveled like a flounder’s spying prey. These fish had heads and tails, unusual in my suburban grocery store, several hundred miles from the nearest U.S. coast. And they were fresh, their silvery skins glinting bits of…
Cheese Soup
One box of fart bombs, please, I said, smiling at the toyshop owner. I put the small, red box emblazoned with caution tape – “MEGA STINKY! GAS MASK REQUIRED!” – on the counter. The shopkeeper grinned back. It had been his idea, after all. And that’s it for my weak defense. I’m the one who…
Snapshot: Champagne Tasting
Champagne tasting with my Valentine and friends at The Capital Hotel in Little Rock on February 14, 2015. (So glad I’m not in charge of washing stemware.) Sometimes the photo is the story.
Chicken Tortilla Soup (In Case You Missed It)
Sometimes a bowl of soup is just a bowl of soup, and sometimes it bears the weight of a thousand prayers for protection and swift return. ♦ ♦ ♦ A soldier I know left for faraway lands last month, honoring his promise to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies….
Sausage Rolls II (In Case You Missed It)
Champagne and hot sausage rolls, a capital way to begin a festive holiday. ♦ ♦ ♦ My mother guffawed when, at 17, I told her I was in the running for an award from the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Teachers did the nominating, and I was happy to be considered….
Cookbook Wall 