Around and About

21 Oct at 7:09 pm

Liguria! Linguine! Che Bella!

In the Kitchen, at the Table, What I Find Fascinating

Cooking suppers as I do for robust thirty-somethings and a delightful ninety-something, armloads of pasta come through our small kitchen weekly at least. The pasta is weighed to be sure of the right amount (three ounces for hearty eaters, two…

1 Oct at 2:15 am

Sunday Night’s Linguine with Smoked Salmon and Fresh Mozzarella

In the Kitchen, at the Table

So last Saturday at Costco we bought two 8-ounce packages of wild-caught smoked salmon for our Sunday morning bagels. I’d also picked up some of the frozen good-for-you toaster waffles. Sunday morning came…Bill asked about the bagels. But I found…

21 Sep at 4:48 pm

Dreaded Chore Become A Pleasure…

Enriching the Days, Musings

So I’ve had a run of physical annoyances…this and that…nothing too scary. Everything under control. So far. The main thing I can take charge of (you can’t take charge of how your inside thises and thats function, so it’s nice…

20 Sep at 1:34 am

A Family Tragedy–What Would You Do?

Musings

As you’ve likely observed, Time and Age are not Equal Opportunity Destroyers. So often Inequity seems to be the name of the game. A vivid example presently in my world… The mother of dear friends has lost her mind. Bitsy’s…

11 Sep at 6:27 pm

Jacques Pépin’s Quick Delectable Fruit Gratins (à la Thompson)

In the Kitchen, at the Table

I ended up finishing this piece on the twenty-fifth anniversary of America’s Day of Horror…9/11. Twenty-five years ago this day, widowed, I was living alone in an apartment in West Los Angeles. As was my custom, I was in the…

27 Aug at 7:51 pm

A Cautionary Tale with Bill Gates

Musings

So I was noodling around looking for something on my laptop and suddenly there was Leslie Stahl on “Sixty Minutes” reporting an amazing breakthrough in memory therapy. Something about research Bill Gates and his foundation had done with a Japanese…

20 Aug at 3:24 pm

Grown a Sweet Potato Vine Lately?

Enriching the Days

I have. It’s amazing. Darn thing takes off—fed nothing but water, air, and light. I had a couple of sweets in the veggie basket, one started sprouting. Nothing I had in mind to cook paired with sweets. I remember the…

11 Aug at 7:44 pm

Ellen’s Wooden Spoons–and Crème Danoise Masterpiece

From the Past, In the Kitchen, at the Table

I was young when Ellen came to my mother as housekeeper. I didn’t know it—realize it—then (as a teenager, my interests, I’m sorry to say, were too much taken up with my own life) that Ellen herself seemed barely out…

21 Jul at 4:56 pm

Summer Entertaining’s Large Luscious Three-Meat Loaf

In the Kitchen, at the Table

Do you also find these mid-summer days super for getting together with family, old friends, neighbors…happy reviving connections? July has brought my first-born grandson (whom I hadn’t seen in years) to our door…and soon good Los Angeles friends will be…

14 Jul at 12:54 pm

A Day on Crete!

From the Past

This from some time ago…vamping while I do a serious rewrite of our novel. Appreciate your kind indulgence… Earbud from my shortwave radio tucked in, in the middle of the night it has been lovely hearing the waves of unfamiliar…