I am a bit of a hothead. My husband is not. He keeps his cool. He even eats cool. He likes dill, a cooling herb which he fondly associates with his German grandmother and her weighs-a-ton potato kugel. Digestive and restorative, dill is a nice source of vitamin A, which you need to keep all…
Where I’m Cooking From*
I used to know a guy, tall, blond, angular, Brit, lived on South Beach, with his own his sense of couture. He’d been to Thailand and had taken to wearing sarongs, those long, wraparound skirts that look right on a Thai but on him looked like he was wearing a towel. We’d go long stretches without…
Reader, I Blush
I am abject. I am not the kind to up and disappear. So where the hell have I been? Finishing the manuscript of Feeding the Hungry Ghost, my book due out in January. It has required a fair amount of care and feeding, itself. But it has introduced me to so many wonderful people (and…
Summer Surprised Us
“Summer surprised us,” writes T.S. Eliot. The phrase comes early in “The Wasteland’ and it surprises the reader, too, already so lost in the poem’s rich layers as to be startled by these five simple syllables that come in the seventh line. Summer always surprises me, especially September, which I still associate with fall, with…
Lovely for Lent Black-Eyed Peas With Fennel and Kale
Some people (and you know who you are) do not share recipes. It’s time to give, darlings. Wouldn’t you rather be known as a big-hearted person who shares the wealth? And even if you write out your prized recipe in painstaking detail, your friend’s version will come out different. Different stove, different cookware,…
