Here are some of the things on my list for us to discuss: The story about Ruth Reichl’s trip to Paris, her trying on an outrageously expensive dress that fit her like a dream, and what happened next. Deb Perelman’s experiment with an autumn squash pasta bake (that looks delicious). My “Fait Tout” pan. What … Continue reading The daily grind.
Think of this as a short prelude, a transition between where we've been (for the past 73 days, anyway, for anyone counting along) and where things are going next. Here’s the scene: It’s fall break, my freshman year of college. My mother has flown from Memphis to meet me in New York, where we are … Continue reading Long haul.
I'm going to try to catch up on sleep (and also, I need to read my book for my book group that is not a book club, the group that is meeting next week to discuss a book I have not finished reading...), so no writing tonight. I'm actually going to crawl into bed before … Continue reading Scrapbook.
Think of this as an unfinished mosaic: When I was little, before my sister was born, I spent weeks each summer at the beach with my mother, building castles, looking for sand dollars, and chasing tiny crabs in the dark as they darted in and out of holes, trying to escape the beams of our … Continue reading Flight.
Sometimes, it's actually just about food. One of the things I realized on our wild mother-daughter trip was that I need to double down on getting my daughter to expand her food horizons. When she was little, I did a fairly good job of introducing new foods and tastes, and I always had the back-up … Continue reading Rigatoni with artichoke hearts and red onion.
On a conference call last week, I remarked that some members of our group would not be attending. "So it's just we," I said to the four people on the call. "Perilous punctuation!" a colleague exclaimed. "You learned that grammar at Hutchison," he continued, "from that teacher with the cat-eye glasses who graded harder than … Continue reading Perilous punctuation.
Let’s keep this simple: Butternut squash is in season, as I’ve already mentioned. But perhaps you are not yet on team butternut squash and need another nudge. That hard-on-the-outside, uniquely shaped squash is one of my favorite things to cook. It strikes the perfect sweet-salty balance when prepared simply; it’s versatile; it’s good for you. … Continue reading Butternut.
Free write, with recipe links at the end: The weather turned completely, but not entirely without warning. The morning report, on the car radio, said the high for the day had occurred already, shortly past midnight. By nightfall it would be cold, with a chance of snow. It was a Saturday, our errand day. After … Continue reading The first cold night.
