Cooking is second nature to me, after nearly 60 years. I am a practical cook with a taste for heat, eclectic palette, and a bit of flair. I mostly love to cook to feed people, to honor guests. In COVID time, I have been cooking mostly for myself, and finding that I am just as … Read more
[Pumpkin Applesauce] I love to invent new dishes, especially when I am finding food that is slightly past prime but redeemable. This is the case with apples often. They get a little soft, perhaps a bit withered, but not rotted. Perfect time to make applesauce. Last night I was finally digging out the pulp from … Read more
I have been cooking since I was nine years old, first by my mother’s side. I received my first cookbook for Christmas and promptly started earning Girl Scout badges in hospitality, baking, and cooking with its recipes. By the time I was 11, I could prepare a full meal for a family. This came in … Read more
[with Corn Chowder Recipe] Awhile back, I think last fall, when the world was more routine and safe from disease, I visited a friend in her stately 19th century house in the country on a hill overlooking a local reservoir. Deb was preparing a corn chowder in her newly remodeled kitchen. The door was left … Read more
When I was a toddler, I would climb on my rocking horse and ride vehemently, the front and back of its frame pulling off the floor in sound thumps. I was sure I felt the wind in my hair as I galloped through my imagined field, square in the middle of the living room. Those … Read more
The day before my 59th birthday, mid-fall 2012, I adopted my first dog, Enza. She was 8 years old, seasoned yet still puppyish, had been cross-country several times. She preferred the right rear passenger seat. When I texted her headshot to a friend, he said, “Oh, she’s going to teach you a lot. I can … Read more
COVID-19 Day 8 of Retreat Throughout my teens and 20s, I had recurring dreams, nightmares actually, but the kind just shy of waking you in terror, a scream lodged in your throat. I had those too. But the dreams I had most often were of being forced to witness genocidal acts or their aftermath, forced … Read more