My violin teacher had one thumb and an open mind; a rich, baritone voice, and a job driving a truck between music lessons. A veteran of public school classrooms, he was willing to take a chance on me, a 42-year-old music novice with a fan-girl’s reverence for the instrument known as the closest thing to…
Raves and Faves 19
The riot of color in this voluptuous bouquet from my Valentine, via About Vase in Little Rock ♦ ♦ ♦ This quote, transcribed on an index card and tacked to the bulletin board in my home office, where I can see it any time a new catalog from Williams-Sonoma tempts me to go online and put stuff…
Elderflower Cosmo
This drink accompanied my Super Bowl Nachos a couple of weeks ago, and I’m thinking it will make a lovely preamble to Friday night’s steak dinner, too. The original recipe came from a Valentine’s Day potluck menu posted on Williams-Sonoma’s “Taste” blog. I had to do a little modifying to account for a total lack of…
Halftime Nachos
Super Bowls: I watch the commercials; I tend to cooking chores or refill my plate during the actual game. Halftime gets my undivided attention if done well, and Bruno Mars did it well last Sunday. That’s about the time these nachos were ready to eat, so I had the best of all worlds: good food,…
Breakfast Casserole
My breakfast casserole is delicious but not photogenic. So the photos here are of the roses that decorated my brunch table on Sunday, not the entrée. But, if you’ll permit a little indulgent metaphor, the real flowers in the bouquet were the faces around the table. This was a gathering of old friends, too-long absent…
Apple Butter
I didn’t go to the Hillcrest Farmers’ Market this morning with the intention of buying apples to make apple butter. I was actually on a futile hunt for the elusive kouign amann pastry made by Mylo Coffee Company. (They sold out long before I got there.) But a trip to a farmers’ market, even in…
Raves and Faves 18
Hot oatmeal in a red bowl, butter and brown sugar on top. ♦ ♦ ♦ Chanel Glossimer lip gloss in Giggle (#46). ♦ ♦ ♦ Clinton School of Public Service speaker series, through which the world comes to Little Rock, Arkansas. Two speakers in November 2013 held me rapt. The first was Dr. Eben Alexander, author of Proof of…
Stir-fried Chicken
Macy hopes gravity will prevail. ♦ ♦ ♦ You’re going to want to cook this on your next bad day. I did. I was glad this recipe was in my arsenal last week, because good food shared with loved ones can take the sting out of most bad days. This chicken dish is delicious and requires little thinking,…
Baked Eggs
Amanda Hesser’s foodie cred and writer bona fides fill me with awe and reverence. Specifically, she’s the author of several excellent books, a former New York Times reporter, and co-founder of a terrific blog called Food 52, to name just a few of her achievements. In her spare time, she’s on a mission to bring…
Christmas and the Non-Chocolate Offering
I can’t have been the only person in America balancing a ham on my hip on Christmas Day, reliving a memory. With a little imagination, ignoring the refrigerator chill, an 11-pound smoked ham feels a lot like a bundled baby. I took a few steps between the stove and sink and stove again, fully immersed…
Cookbook Wall 