Friday, January 15, 2021
A La Carte
Life & Style • Published Jan. 07, 2021 12:01 a.m.
Getting Hands-On with Scones
It was a bit of a sad holiday season. I shared Thanksgiving with my neighbors. They are the only people who have been invited into my condo during the pandemic, other than my daughter, the...
Life & Style • Published Dec. 24, 2020 12:01 a.m.
When Words Are Not Enough
I recently lost a dear friend. Gloria Pépin was the most elegant, funny, smart, and lovely woman I have ever known. She was also a loyal friend. For those of us who knew her, life will never...
Life & Style • Published Dec. 17, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Baking and Cooking for Christmas
With Christmas just around the corner, we are probably looking forward to another holiday that is different from what we might wish. In my heart of hearts, I believe that we will all be together...
Life & Style • Published Dec. 10, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Liven Up Your Latkes
My new hip is perfect. My hip has given me a new lease on life. I was on my walker for a few days, onto my cane the next week, and driving on the third.And best of all, it included a visit...
Life & Style • Published Dec. 03, 2020 12:01 a.m.
On Perfect Recipes and Imperfect Friendships
Many decades ago, we spent a New Jersey weekend with my husband’s friend, a radiologist. I call him my husband’s friend because, once my husband died, I exited that friendship...
Life & Style • Published Nov. 26, 2020 12:01 a.m.
The Dinner You Really Wanted
Hip replacement surgery made for a long week.It began with a night at a motel (not exciting, honest), an early dinner (a superb turkey club salad), a not-terrific sleep, and an early shower....
Life & Style • Published Nov. 19, 2020 12:01 a.m.
A Smaller, Easier A Smaller, Easier
For years and years, many years ago, my family and my husband’s came to our house for Thanksgiving. It was a long trip for them. When the children were fairly young, we might have up to 15...
Life & Style • Published Nov. 12, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Chicken Soup? Make Mine Neat
Sometimes you make something so easy, and so often, you assume everyone does so, too. That is me with chicken soup. I do buy those quart-sized cartons of chicken soup for the pantry. Sometimes it...
Life & Style • Published Nov. 05, 2020 12:01 a.m.
A Cake For All Seasons
Sometimes I wish I had a garden, but I don’t like dirt or insects. My late husband’s family always had vegetable and flower gardens. My parents could have had a garden, but they...
Life & Style • Published Oct. 29, 2020 12:01 a.m.
A Wild Election? A Pandemic? That Calls for Cake!
If there’s one thing I love better than a good contest, it’s a cake. And so, I do love the idea of an election cake contest, what with a wild election, a pandemic, and more time to...
Life & Style • Published Oct. 22, 2020 12:01 a.m.
A Good Week, Despite it All
It has been a wonderful week or so of delicious food, music, and a documentary.Although it has not been exactly like Julie Andrews singing “My Favorite Things” in The Sound of ...
Life & Style • Published Oct. 15, 2020 12:01 a.m.
One Short Paragraph, One Short Paragraph,
Some friends recently offered me a pound of freshly picked shiitake mushrooms for $8 a pound. I asked if I could get two. So this is a very short column, so I can give you two mushroom soup...
Life & Style • Published Oct. 08, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Feeding a Crowd During a Pandemic
Feeding small groups of people during the pandemic is a problem.For our fundraiser for Democratic candidates (you just knew I was a Democrat, didn’t you?), I decided to make...
Life & Style • Published Oct. 01, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Two Sweet Recipes for Cold, Dark Nights
My friend Nancy hates it when it gets dark in the evening. She doesn’t care much for snow, either. We talked this morning and she said she had to turn on the heat last night. In the middle...
Life & Style • Published Sep. 24, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Something Sweet at the End of the Day
Even though it’s late September, I’m not really ready for fall. And maybe that’s why I somehow managed to miss the last of this season’s peaches at my local farmstand....
Life & Style • Published Sep. 17, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Same Ingredients Flavored by New Inspiration
My eating patterns have changed over the past six months. During the shelter-in-place phase of the pandemic, I looked at my freezers and pantry and began using up what was in there, many of them...
Life & Style • Published Sep. 10, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Summer Will Soon Be a Memory
By the time you read this, Labor Day will be a memory—a fond one, I hope. School may be in session for some of us. More of us, I hope, may be back to work.We will still be using our...
Life & Style • Published Sep. 03, 2020 12:01 a.m.
The Most Delicious Dinner I Ever Made
Last week I made the most delicious dinner I’d ever made.And it was the easiest.And it was so satisfying that no dessert—ice cream, cookies, cheesecake, or crème...
Life & Style • Published Aug. 27, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Loving Eggplant in Every Way Possible
Last weekend, between cooking (more basil pesto and the Coca Cola chocolate cake), reading (finally finished Scott Turow’s The Last Trial), or watching television (not much left now except...
Life & Style • Published Aug. 20, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Just the Best Summer Ever
Do you remember Willard Scott from the Today show? I saw him a few years ago at a Sunday brunch at the Saybrook Point Inn. I always liked his birthday wishes to anyone over 100 years, sponsored by ...
Life & Style • Published Aug. 13, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Welcoming Company
It was a nice week with more company at home in four days than I had in the last four months.Tuesday evening, I had five friends for dinner. We are all good friends, all five from Lyme, and ...
Life & Style • Published Aug. 06, 2020 12:01 a.m.
The Joy of the Summer Season
I still haven’t had an ear of sweet corn, but the farm stands do seem to be doing well this year.Last week, I took home several kinds of green beans, lots more basil, and two...
Life & Style • Published July 30, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Tomatoes Before Sweet Corn
It was a nice week: a little rain, a lot of sunshine, my first trip to the beach, and low humidity. One evening, friends and I had dinner at a restaurant outside under a big tent, and listened to...
Life & Style • Published July 23, 2020 12:01 a.m.
Summer’s Flavors Saved for a Full Year
I am amazed how much friends have managed to get tasks done during this pandemic isolation. My friends the Fitzgeralds’ garden looks like something out of a French painting, with pots of...
Life & Style • Published July 16, 2020 12:01 a.m.
The Great Smells of Summer
Last week my friend Judy called and asked if I’d like to pick basil. It couldn’t have been a better time, since I had just one packet of pesto in the freezer, left over from last...