This year – and I know you know this as well – the holiday season will be nothing like it used to be. A few weeks ago, I thought I’d throw together a Christmas meal of meatballs and lefse and that would be it as far as my efforts would go. But then I changed … More Smörgåsbord: Perfect for the 2020 Holiday Season
As any regular reader of this blog knows, I collect cookbooks. Also books about food. Books about writing and history, too. And, as with most good things, sometimes you can just have too much. That is why for the last several months, I’ve been purging my many bookshelves. After donating several boxes of books to … More Holiday Shopping Made Easy – BOOKS!
I turn the calendar page and the tiny print at the bottom of the little square reminds me: Thanksgiving, November 26, 2020. After nearly a year of increasing horrors, many deaths, travel restrictions, and just plain fear of a still-mysterious virus, I find myself wondering just what Thanksgiving means to me now. This year, it … More Thanksgiving, in the Time of COVID-19
Some days felt longer than other days. Some days felt like two whole days. — JOSHUA FERRIS, “THEN WE CAME TO THE END” Days merging, time sluggish yet fleeting. Some days do indeed feel as if Father Time decided to add a few days to the week, or more hours to the days. The following … More Starvation and Hunger, in a State of Siege: Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Days 27 & 28
December 21, the longest night of the year, sacred to Druids and others. A time to take stock of the eerie darkness, the state of the world, the perfidy of many human souls. And a time to contemplate my smallness, seated as I am on this whirling blue dot orbiting a flaming ball of fire. … More The Longest Night: Ramblings on the Darker Side of the Christmas Season
At Christmastime, my kitchen becomes a place where past and present merge. Through food, I honor my ancestors – the known, the unknown, and the never-to-be knowns, all the people whose DNA runs through my veins and shapes my nose and determines my character. They hailed from Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Cheshire, Lincoln, London, Kent … … More Happy Christmas to All!
President Harry S. Truman found himself on the slimming end of things in 1946. The New York Times reported that Truman’s menus seemed a bit austere and quoted White House housekeeper, Mrs. Mary E. Sharpe, as saying “When I make up menus I keep it in mind.” “It” being President’s Truman’s ongoing battle of the … More Poor Harry: Thanksgiving in the Truman White House 1946
