Posted in Chicagoland, culinary school, recipes, sauces on Jun 27th, 2009
Moments after finishing my first pot of caramel sauce – first melted sugar, first caramel anything – I pulled up an apron corner, wrapped the burning handle and carried it down twenty-seven steps, past an audience of snickering older students, past my teachers, not breathing until the pot finally reached the hands of a famous [...]
Posted in chicken, family, Holiday, Kansas on Jun 20th, 2009
We’re on the road this weekend, toward Western Kansas, to Abilene, to stare at some pretty country, to fret about tornadoes, to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum. We toured Ike’s boyhood home, gawked at parlor chairs and portraits and sifters, trying to find out what makes great men great. Here in Mrs. Eisenhower’s [...]
After the last kugel was served, the last tired-legs house tour given, after the last lipsticked kiss and the last out-of-towner boarded a plane, we were left with one half-bag of pretzels and a bowl of ganache. So I made a pretzel ganache sandwich. End of story. What. Oh, I’m sorry…the Bat Mitzvah. Were you [...]
Posted in books, Chicagoland, 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 I was a fearful eleven-year-old who declined the five-finger discount – and despite many examinations [...]
Posted in Chicagoland, family, friends, writing on May 1st, 2009
I would like more sisters, that the taking out of one, might not leave such stillness. Emily Dickinson After more than a year’s worth of Simmer, I’ve concluded that blogging is much like phoning your family. Some days an outburst and others, just “Everything okay? Bye.” For example, I was going to tell you about [...]
