As we cooked our way through that stack, I discovered interesting shiftsin the way Times readers have approached food. Desserts experienced a major renaissance during the 1970s, as the writers served up ambitious cakes, extraordinarily sweet American pies, and a novel concept called the French tart. Pastry chefs then cut back on the sugar and…
“Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.” -Annie Dillard I'll be honest with you: not many of the recipes I make and post on this blog go through an experimental "let's try this and see how it tastes" test run. And this isn't to say that everything I touch automatically turns to gold.…
It was a wild idea, romantic and implausible, and the odd thing is that it worked. -Louis de Bernieres (Corelli's Mandolin)A lot can happen in a week. I flew across the country (it's cold here; my skin doesn't like it at all). I also revised my prospectus (yay, finally! Now the real writing can begin)…
"I wanted to burn her, the wicked witch."-Fyodor Sologub (The Petty Demon)I'm happy to report that conference is now over. I would even go so far as to say that it was fairly successful; I chaired a fascinating panel on graphic novels where I met some interesting people, I got to go and listen to…
The fog comeson little cat feet.It sits looking overharbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.-Carl SandburgI'd like to preface this post by saying that, despite my choice of title, I'm more than aware that it's summer; I also know that, in some parts of the country, it's 100 degrees and positively sweltering, making everybody…
"I was talking about time. It's so hard for me to believe in it. Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. You know. Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there." - Toni Morrison, BelovedBlogging is…
Dining with Dostoevsky 