[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]’ve been thinking a lot about stars lately, in part, because of the season, but even earlier in the year than that because I noticed a very bright star in the sky that I’ve come to look for every morning. Sometimes this star is companioned by a crisp slice of […]
[I] don’t know that everyone goes through a cookie period, but I did. It was extensive, lasting from the ages of 7 to 18 and boy, was I prolific. Like many little girls, the first recipe I asked if I could make was chocolate chip cookies — the Tollhouse recipe […]
“Food is not fuel. It is not nutrition. It is fun, educational, horizon expanding, delightful. It is consoling, transporting and a comfort. If you want a happy eater, run a happy kitchen. These things take time, but so do all good things.†— Laurie Colwin, “More Home Cooking: A Writer […]
[B]e wary entering the pages of Southern Living magazine. You may be entranced to the point of pie-making. Take me, for example. A couple years ago, I was given a copy of the Thanksgiving issue of Southern Living by a colleague. A year hence, I was not only a subscriber […]
[W]hat most of us know of Georgia O’Keeffe comes from the canvas — brilliant, colorful, sensuous works that stamped a legendary place for the artist in history as one of the country’s most talented painters. As a person, she was known as the adventuring reclusive, who fell in love with […]
[I]s it strange to crave ice cream in the fall? Is it odd that, as everything is cooling off (sort of), I want cold, cold items, as if to hasten my beloved chilly temperatures? Apparently not. Recently Saveur magazine posted an array of autumn-inspired flavors imbued with apple, ginger and […]
“They had colcannon, and the funniest things were found in it — tiny dolls, mice, a pig made of china, silver sixpences, a thimble, a ring, and lots of other things. After supper was over all went into the big play-room, and dived for apples in a tub of water, […]
[E]ver since I discovered September was National Biscuit Month, I cannot let it go by without trying a new biscuit recipe or honoring a favorite. After all, I never knew a biscuit I didn’t like — some more than others and some haunting me still (did you know that, in […]
[T]here are some folks who just get the job done. Others say they will do this or that, and don’t — they simply collapse back on themselves, and just thinking about the thing they aim to do tires them. Then there are people like Glen Lamontagne, who charge ahead tirelessly, […]