Food, Photography and Bon Mots
I guess I have always lived in a scone desert. I never tasted one until I was an adult. Always seemed meh to me. Then, this scone came along. Wow. My late-in-life discovery of scones made me wonder about the origins of scones. It turns…
We are enjoying the first glorious days of spring here in Southern California. Plants are budding and the sweet little birds are singing their sweet little songs. I have a Black Phoebe in my backyard who is entertaining me and Juliet with swoops and other…
OK. It’s no polar vortex, but it is cold, dark and rainy here in SoCal—window-rattling thunder, too. My nerves are noticeably jangled. Sweet Juliet, with plaintive break-your-heart “Mom: Make it stop” eyes, is hiding among the folds of her favorite blanket. No question. We’re quite…
I made biscuits the other day. It sounded like a good idea but I ended up hating them. B-o-r-i-n-g. Even a generous pat of Kerrygold butter couldn’t bring them to life. OK. I’ll admit that it may have been me. I am in my…
Three hundred and seventy-three blueberries. That’s how many berries Juliet and I had to pick up off the floor. I had reached into the refrigerator, gotten distracted as I grabbed a jar of marmalade and, in one fraught moment, managed to dislodge the two-pound box…
I was reminded of Paul Simon’s iconic hit as I was making banana bread the other day. I’m quickly finding that there are at least fifty ways to make the sweet treat. (If you want to relive a bit of Paul Simon’s performance…
When a wonderful baking resource like King Arthur Flour bestows the title of “Recipe of the Year” on one of its creations, I sit up and take notice. That is particularly true for me because I was so in love with their lemon…
Happy spring! Who doesn’t love warm-from-the-oven rolls on a pretty spring day? Make them hot cross buns warm from the oven and slathered with cardamom-scented frosting and you are sure to swoon. Some food historians tell us that the first hot cross buns were…
Quick! Hand me a jar of my neighbor Sarah’s etherial tangerine marmalade. I have two warm-from-the-oven loaves of sourdough bread sitting on my kitchen counter. Warm sourdough bread. Bitter-ish marmalade. It doesn’t get better than that. As you may know if you regularly read…
“Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse – and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness – And Wilderness is Paradise enow.” –Omar Khayyam Omar Khayyam had it right. Bread elevates the soul. Studies…
