Given the milieu and such, caution seems fitting. Maybe I’m wrong but will just test the water with my toes for now. Yesterday Chef David stopped on his way home from errands and picked up a nice piece of tuna and then made seared fingerling potatoes and an uncomplicated cucumber salad to go with. We flipped on the 2020 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, and … Continue reading 2025 Almanac: Stepping Into the New Year With Due Caution
Twice in the last couple of days Chef David and I have observed aloud how lucky we are, and grateful to be sure. This Christmas we also managed to wrangle precisely the same days off somehow, to celebrate quietly at home, surrounded by warmth and love (in three dimensions and through the ether) and one sweet-smelling old canine who stood patiently for his bath a … Continue reading Christmas Day 2025
Quick food story: Last night’s Brussels sprouts were an experiment. The produce aisle where we shop always has fresh sprouts, but their condition from week to week is wholly unpredictable. In fact, the only thing predictable about them is their inflated price. But last Saturday we discovered organic frozen sprouts, and decided there was nothing to lose. Chef David prepared a supper last night of … Continue reading Quick Sunday Almanac: Saturday Dinner 1.27.24
Sundays in our house usually give us a chance to press reset, to ready ourselves for the week ahead. Renewal feels so essential for success in the coming week. Ordinary chores to me are cathartic and necessary, and anyway somebody’s gotta do ’em. A few images from the day today. In the bleak midwinter are also outside chores to do. The Chef has been working … Continue reading Silent Sunday Almanac: Photo Essay
Black Bean and Chipotle Chowder; see recipe down below On this crisp, low-humidity October day, the light in the kitchen seemed magical to me so I decided to chop and click. No words, just images on a beautiful fall Sunday in coastal North Carolina. From Soup for Syria, contributed by Jane Hughes: 1 t vegetable oil 2 small onions, diced 3 small carrots, diced 4 … Continue reading Photo Essay: Silent Sunday Soup
My SIL down in Charleston got me interested in this pepper-ish website months ago, and I bit. We don’t have any growing space at our new place beyond the ornamental beds around our immediate house—the greenspaces in this neighborhood are all ‘common’ areas maintained as lawn by the HOA, and that suits us just fine. No more mowing. But that means any fresh veg we … Continue reading Labor Day Almanac: Summer of Peppers
It has been a while since I exercised my camera and my eye and so today I decided to capture what was a fairly typical Sunday in our household. It is quiet but not, relaxing but busy. When we put off Sunday chores we pay for that decision all week long. Scoutie and I started our morning outdoors while David was at work, a job … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Domestic Arts
We felt like making chili this weekend, never mind that the highs have hovered around 80°F for the past few days and the neighborhood kids are still running around barefoot; the air still smells like fall. What transpired today instead of chili is a hearty concoction called Black Bean and Chipotle Chowder, an invention of food writer Jane Hughes and included in the collection that … Continue reading Sunday Photo Essay: Playing With Light (And Food)
Well, the sun’s not so hot in the sky today and you know I can see summertime slipping on away. James Taylor, September Grass Another birthday week has come and gone with relatively little fanfare (although it was a significant year for one of us), but it included plenty of inspired cuisine as always. The Chef has returned to pastry, not professionally yet in this … Continue reading Almanac: Labor Day 2022
Some of my readers were surprised to learn I baked my first pie, ever, last Thanksgiving. Yesterday, I baked my first bread, ever. It’s true. I announced to The Chef whilst we were on our weekly shop on Saturday I intended to bake bread. Great, he said. Go for it! Just don’t forget to bring your patience. And so yesterday while he was at work, … Continue reading July 4th Weekend 2022, in Which I Bake Bread
Carolina Thinklings 