Most Sundays, my husband and I walk over to our local diner for an egg-white omelette or eggs-over-easy and their fried, crunchy hash browns. This Sunday, I decided I wanted to make my favorite pancake recipe after reading Bee Wilson’s fabulous “Consider the Fork.” It is essentially a look at the history of food through Continue >>
Continuing with the sweet and salty theme from a few weeks ago, I was inspired to make this cake after reading “Ahab’s Wife” by Sena Jeter Naslund. It’s a story about the wife of Captain Ahab, of Moby Dick fame. Though I’ve never read Moby Dick, I do love it when authors take a character Continue >>
In her autobiography, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948, Madeleine Albright talks about learning she had been born of Jewish descent, and never knew about it until the vetting process to become President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State. Her parents left the Czech Republic, eventually for America, abandoned Judiasm and raised Continue >>
I recently finished Claire Dederer’s memoire “Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses” and enjoyed her journalist approach to yoga, feminism, child rearing and relationships. Dederer is a Seattle-based freelancer who frequently writes for the New York Times Book Review section. Like me, she grew up in the 1970’s when carrot cake topped the charts Continue >>
One of the wonderful things about starting this blog is that I’m seeing inspiration in everything I’m reading. Recently, I picked up a book by Boston-based doctor Atul Gawande. He is one of my writing heroes for his ability to explain health care policy and patient issues in a compelling and accessible way. He is Continue >>
Italian bakeries usually have amaretto, biscotti, macaroons, red cherry and other delicious looking cookies calling to me — Take me home! Eat me! Then my eye comes across the pignolis, or pine nut cookies. I usually stop and stare at them because I love pine nuts on salads, pizza and of course, in pesto. I Continue >>
Mystery novels are one of my favorite genres. Perhaps it is because, as a journalist, I often feel I am discovering the mystery of what makes a person tick or why something matters. I report on a person or a topic, read through all my notes of those interviews, and like a puzzle, put the Continue >>
I borrowed the title of this post from a 2009 book by the same name written by Leslie Miller. It’s a delightful memoir from a Baltimore-based writer who tells the tales of becoming obsessed with making cakes and the history of cake-making. She also interviews cake makers around the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. region and Continue >>
Back when my husband Jonah and I shared our first Valentine’s Day, I can’t remember exactly what we did, but I do remember the gift he gave me – Pablo Neruda’s “100 Love Sonnets.” I was definitely swept off my feet! The poems, inspired by Neruda’s wife Matilde, are beautiful and easy to read. We Continue >>
I recently discovered the great food writer, MFK Fisher, and have totally fallen in love with her work. Her essays about food and living in France in early 1900’s have this lyrical quality that feel a bit like poetry. She wrote 27 books and remained an influential food writer until her death in 1992. In Continue >>
