Ireland – Trad Music, Brown Bread, and the 99
Begorrah. Slainte. Shite. That’s about the sum of my Irish vocabulary, which I learned after spending a short week in the Ancient East coastal area of rolling green hills, gently capped waters, Celtic crosses, 99 ice creams. It’s what you’d expect of Ireland (maybe not the 99’s…more on that), it doesn’t disappoint. But there’s so […]
An Unexpected Adventure
I save mid-winter and early spring for writing, trying my best not to fill my calendar. It’s always a halcyon time where I, like most writers I know and read about, flirt with the unexpected in productivity, moods, and distractions. Being a mother, and the sole proprietor of a very old home with its own […]
Bitter Orange Marmalade
I love phone calls like the one I received the other day from my neighbor, Nathalie. “Suzanne, I have too many bitter oranges, would you like some?” I didn’t hesitate a minute. This is the season for bitter oranges (Seville oranges – they come from Spain) and each year I turn them into marmalade. […]
London’s Towpath Café
I just spent a short week in London, working. The rewards of my visit were many: a successful recording experience; a duskily delicious and intriguing dinner with my Dutch publisher, Jacqueline Smit of Orlando, at Nopi, Yotam Ottolenghi’s paen to Mediterranean flavors; the best Gloucester pork chop of my life at the Abingdon with another […]
Solid Oil
Anything dipped in olive oil tastes better. And olive oil as a dip or drizzle is so common as to be banal, which doesn’t make it anything less than exquisite IF the olive oil is extra-virgin and perfectly balanced and delicious, and that which dips in it is the same. I often drizzle olive oil […]
Coffee Surprise
I just spent a weekend in New York with my son, Joseph. He works nights at a unique and delicious spot in Brooklyn called Pok Pok, a restaurant specializing in Thai street food, so we had days together. The first morning we were up early, not wanting to waste a second. By the time we […]
Food and Other Ways in Sarajevo
I’m in Bosnia, helping out a non-profit with their worthy project that involves keeping the family on the farm through agricultural tourism. My assignment: transcribe traditional recipes from the farm, demonstrate to Bosnian farm women how to teach cooking to tourists, and document traditional food ways. Today was my “orientation day” in Sarajevo. Farouk Helac […]
Favorite Meal of the Day
What’s yours? I love them all of course, but breakfast is my favorite. There is something so fresh and new about it. I find it fresh, because my favorite consists of freshly baked bread, fresh and lightly salted butter, and fresh coffee which fills the downstairs with its toasty aroma. It is new because it […]
