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Cathy O’Connell and I have broken bread in London, Paris, Aspen and El Jebel, sharing wonderful meals and experiences together. But nothing tops the hilarity and merriment of Christmas dinner at her brother Barney’s condo in Encinitas (Cali) last Sunday night. When I...

YEAR 2013 Years ago I flew to the Food Blogger Conference in Seattle to join twenty other French Friday with Dorie members to support Dorie Greenspan, the keynote speaker. We were part of a virtual group cooking through her latest award-winning book, “Around My French...

If the answer is, “Don’t know.”  Pretty sure the question was, “Where did the summer go?” #Summer Highlights Facade of Aspen Art Museum What hasn’t yet left the building is this year’s bountiful crop of tomatoes.  As long as we can still slice and salt a...

Every summer from late June to early Fall, I pick up addictively delicious Palisade peaches (and plums, apricots, pears and sweet corn) at a fruit stand pitched near the gas tanks at Roaring Fork Valley Coop in nearby Carbondale. The Coop is my year-round go-t0...

“When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.”  Wilma Rudolph Realizing there are some mountains too high for me and some troubles beyond my control, the sun is still shining so… BRING ON SUMMER Grilled...

Last Tuesday a friend who lives in Mountain Valley, an East Aspen area that shares its space with wildlife habitat, called, “Hey Mary,” she said, “Can you come pick me up? There’s a moose in my front yard and I can’t get to my car.” Honestly, Readers, this is a call...

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...