Books | Simmer Till Done

I’ll Stop the Verse and Melt With You

Posted in birthdays, books, butter on Nov 11th, 2009

As noted here, I have a thing for butter and sadly, we’re not talking toast. I tell you, sometimes I pop butter directly with brown sugar and my mouth thinks why bother baking? It’s all here.
Back in bakery years, working all day near 64-pound butter blocks was torture, a special brand of wafting, yellow, [...]

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Great Reads for Culinary Kids (and Hungry Adults)

Posted in Chicagoland, books on Sep 25th, 2009

One breezy Chicago summer, my brother and I built a treehouse.
Isn’t that nice? But before my mother objects, let’s rephrase: one sweaty Chicago summer, my brother and I nearly killed each other nailing two boards into a tree. We pounded rows of crooked nails into little boards for steps, and as high as we could [...]

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The Baker’s Alphabet

Posted in Josie, blogging, books, friends, sketchbook on Jul 12th, 2009

Why are we detouring into the nursery? Well. When Josie was very small, and I was very tired but she was not, I’d walk the floors with her in the dark, and make stuff up. Nonsense murmuring stuff, like this – a rhyming stream of bakery talk. Yes. I was one whacked-out sleepy caterer.
Why am [...]

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Moms Will Be Moms, But Judy is Forever

Posted in Chicagoland, books, friends on May 13th, 2009

{ A Mother’s Day tale }
In 1978 just three types of contraband existed for me and my pal Andie Lerner: shoplifted Bonne Bell makeup, those curious magazines in our brothers’ rooms, and Judy Blume’s teen sex novel, Forever. But at eleven, I feared juvenile cosmetics prison and declined the five-finger discount; despite many examinations of [...]

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