DIG IN

My daughter, Melissa, has always said the best thing we do together is laugh. That premise was to be truly tested after I finally scheduled Total Knee Replacement surgery for mid-April. When I called to tell her, she replied, “ So I’ll come for two weeks to take care...

“Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit!” Or, as we say in English, “Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you.” This week I pulled up my tried-and-true soda bread recipe, delicious in its own unforgettable way. I always wonder why I bake it only once a year. It’s especially necessary this...

Few of us can ignore or not be affected by the news coming out of Ukraine right now. Dark moments like these challenge us to remember once again who we are and what we can endure and refuse to tolerate. JUST MAKING IT PERSONAL..... My friend Ardyth was a Fulbright...

Before Tom Sawyer, before Huckleberry Finn, when Mark Twain was an underpaid wanna-be newspaper reporter, he found himself in Hawaii. In 1866 at just 31 years of age, The Sacramento Daily Union sent him on assignment to the Sandwich Islands, present-day Hawaii. He...

Did anyone besides me need a nudge into 2022? If only we’d had a Trailer like the movies with some teasers as to what’s ahead. I’ve always trusted that I can bloom where I’m planted, make the best of any situation. Right now the situation is 2022, we’re in it, let’s...

Last week I flew to Hawaii, scooting out of Aspen just before snow, snow and more snow. Maui will be my sunny slice of paradise until mid-February. For seven years I’ve traveled solo every winter, sharing those journeys, hits and misses, with you.  Blackened Mahi...

How was your Thanksgiving? If happiness is homemade, I hope your plate was loaded with memorable, familiar food and gratitude for it. While my family was celebrating in four different places last Thursday, we all went to bed well-fed, warm, safely in our homes/dorms...

MAPLE-BROWN BUTTER-PUMPKIN LOAF with CINNAMON BUTTER In today’s post we’re going to skip the tricks, not even begin a conversation and just concentrate on the treat. With apologies to other pumpkin bread recipes, it’s time they step aside. Why is this pumpkin loaf so...

Saturday morning I received a FaceTime Call from Emma, my college junior. “Hi Gramma, I just called to see how you’re Celebrating You today?” Believing I was Celebrating Me by opting out of applying make-up, forgetting to comb my hair and on my 3rd cup of very dark...

Each year, in late September, I take inventory of what’s tucked away in my pantry, hanging out on my shelves and threatening freezer burn in my fridge. As diligent as one tries to be, aren’t we all guilty of buying more than we need and using less than we can? But...

Please know I don’t normally “do” boxed cakes. Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines don’t usually live in my pantry. But recently, when asked to bake a chocolate cake for a special birthday, I went there. It’s always amazed me how adding pudding in the mix, an extra egg,...

In the late Eighties my daughter Melissa, a junior at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, spent her junior semester abroad in Sumatra, Indonesia. Michael and I were less than pleased about her destination choice but to no avail. She was headstrong, independent and...