My newest book garnered the following review from Midwest Book Review:* Stoves & Suitcases: Searching for Home in the World’s Kitchens should be in the holdings of any collection strong in culinary biography and history. What began as a search for home and roots evolved into a culinary exploration, as Cynthia D. Bertelsen documents in chapters that … More Midwest Book Review on “Stoves & Suitcases”
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Thanks to the COVID-19 virus, I’m missing Mother Nature. And Arizona. When I opened the July 2020 issue of Arizona Highways, I realized just how deep my discontent has become. Twenty-five writers and photographers tell stories of the places they yearned to see once quarantine ended, when they could clamber into a Jeep and hike … More Dreaming of the Sonoran Desert: Metaphors for Escape in the Time of COVID-19), Part 1
Yesterday, I crossed into Nogales, Mexico, and saw a bit of Nogales, Arizona, too. It’s a story that repeats itself every day of the year. At Ed’s Border Lot, my car fits nicely between two others – the one on the left with an Arizona plate, the one on the right with a Sonoran plate. … More A Day on the Border: Nogales, Mexico
The smell of burning diesel alerted me – the bus would be there in a few seconds. With a loud burp, it came to a rubber-losing stop about 10 feet away from I stood. Exiting passengers stumbled down the worn linoleum-covered steps, clutching baskets filled with squawking chickens, small squealing piglets, and sleeping babies wrapped tightly in thread-bare rebozos. Behind … More Cooking with Hurricane Irma, Part III: A Tale of Guacamole
Patron Saint of Mexico and the Americas Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once said that “…one may no longer consider himself a Christian, but you cannot truly be considered a Mexican unless you believe in the Virgin of Guadalupe.” Apocryphal or not, the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe makes fascinating reading. And the food’s pretty … More December 12: The Virgin of Guadalupe
I’m going to bed every night now with Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book, The Lacuna: A Novel, about Mexico, politics, art, El Norte, and — best of all — cooks. After her last book (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life), Kingsolver still finds food a fascinating part of life. In The Lacuna, here’s how … More In the Kitchen with Barbara Kingsolver: I
[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]
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