You’re not supposed to begin a piece of writing with a question. Why not? No idea, except that the “experts” seem to think that it’s an easy way out. “You can do better,” they say. So what was my question? Oh yes. Why is traditional French food so terribly unpopular at the moment? Many authors … More Speaking of France …
Florida experienced a “gold rush” almost as soon as the first Spanish soldier spit out an orange seed and kept marching through the palmetto and myrtle oak in 1513. It’s no mystery as to why California and Florida became dominant citrus-growing regions. Moors (Arabs) ruled Spain for over 800 years, and citrus – particularly oranges … More The Second Gold Rush: Citrus Crate Labels
I’ve always wanted to make my way, to make a pilgrimage if you please, to Oxford, Mississippi, to worship at a shrine there. It’s not your ordinary saint’s tomb nor is it a grand cathedral bathed in a kaleidoscope of light when early morning sunlight blazes through stained glass. No, I journeyed many miles just … More Deep in William Faulkner’s South: Myth, Reality, and Cooking
Nature is a Haunted House – but Art – a House that tries to be haunted. ~ Emily Dickinson From my vantage point on the third floor of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, I spy on the ant-like pedestrians scampering below, frantically dodging raindrops and rude taxis. Tiny moving sculptures, … More The Call
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
In November 2021, I learned that Stoves & Suitcases won Best in the USA for Food Writing for 2022, given by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, under the auspices of Edouard Cointreau, a member of the Cointreau family of French liqueur producers. Scroll to page 32 of this .pdf to see the other winners in … More “Stoves & Suitcases” Best in the World winner in Food Writing: Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2022
Miles and miles of endless, empty roads, only the occasional passing freight truck for hours on end, vast open spaces on either side, sagebrush, sand, merciless sunshine, roadrunners darting across the asphalt, jarring hypnotized drivers awake faster than a double Big Jolt. The desert, to the uninitiated, seems barren, lifeless, a place to be gotten … More Cuisine in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert: Cholla Buds
Well, yes, I confess. I am writing a memoir. Or trying to. It may never see the inside of two book covers. Maybe the impulse to do this is just a function of revisiting two shoeboxes full of letters I wrote when I knew nothing about anything, but thought I did. Or it’s a result … More Writing a Memoir? Have I Got the Perfect Book for You.