Because sometimes, inspiration is in the upper left cabinet above the sink. 1. In 1993 we registered for twelve blue-and-white coffee cups from William-Sonoma. We received a gift box with eleven blue-striped cups and, like an ugly duckling, one with a stripe of green. Green Stripe always sat in the back, used only for a [...]
Posted in drinks, family, sketchbook, vacation, winter on Jan 9th, 2010
Home exactly one week, and with jet lag behind me (and snow shovel in hand) I can look back now and smile on a glorious time. Vienna was magic, Salzburg was alpine, and Munich – Munich was fascinating, with many faces: historic, kitschy, lively, stony, colorful, both wholly modern and mired in its past. We [...]
Posted in blogging on Dec 12th, 2009
Popular: we discussed that idea last year, what it meant to a frustrated mom and her twelve year old girl, in the 2008 Simmer review. At the time I was stunned by our rookie junior high kid’s new habit of throwing that word around and believing it might be true. My daughter spent her first [...]
Posted in chef days, culinary school, kitchen on Nov 20th, 2009
Josie was supposed to be scooping blondie batter out of a glass bowl and into a waiting pan. She handled my blue spatula like a lazy rake, pushing batter forward, up and out one glop at a time. I clasped hands and tried patience, but the spatula dripped and she moved on to licking her [...]
Posted in Josie, breakfast & brunch, family, vacation on Oct 24th, 2009
I will not miss summer, not frizzy hair and heat for one minute – but every leaf fell today, dragon-red streamers in a parade of pouring rain. It was lovely, and made me want to spin each leaf on its stem, examine every brown lace vein and dry serrated edge. Still, it took walking in [...]
