I know this is not usually the way I work things around here, but I just saw maybe one of the funniest things ever. My friend Meg sent it to me days ago, and I didn’t really look until now, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever found food so funny. Make sure that you…
black bottom cupcakes
My grandmother called herself a pagan, and the way she demonstrated this spiritual identity to herself was by throwing me a Spring party every year. I’m not quite sure how this tradition started, but somewhere along the way she started making black bottom cupcakes, and I still remember munching them with my friends under the…
the salon challenge
So you want to take the challenge? Here’s how it came about… A ways back, I heard an essay on the NPR series This I Believe, that I just couldn’t get out of my mind. Jim Haynes wrote about his weekly salons, dinners held in his Paris home for upwards of sixty people, all brought…
anise ice cream
Somehow I ended up going for the cliche on this one, and I made this on Valentine’s day. Now it’s been a couple of weeks so I need to emotionally recreate the evening for myself. You can come along too. OK, OK, here we go… My friend Molly was coming back from Istanbul, and her…
A Gift
I can’t even say that I knew this would be the case when I woke up this morning, but for the first time in a while, I seem to be having a day. Work is slower today, and I seem to be more on top of things than I thought. It’s warm today, almost 40,…
Occasionally I teach workshops, and I have one coming up this fall. Join me and stellar novelist 