I need a vacation from the vacation.” It was The Chef’s answer to me after we wrapped up our Thanksgiving travel, when I asked how he was feeling ahead of his first day back at work, just a few hours away. We had five glorious days off, five consecutive days, where our agenda was possibly a tad too ambitious. Heading over to Asheville to spend … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: Thanksgiving 2023 Is in the Books
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
This morning I experimented with a new bread recipe that came in two steps, the first a starter to make the night before, and then the balance to make the next morning. I was trying to replicate a Tuscan loaf I bought locally that was so, so good. This does not resemble it at all, but I must say, is so, so much better. Given … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: Trying Something New
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
It is Monday, the first full day in my week-long visit to Dad’s place down in Chattanooga, to his comfortable house in the suburbs (more properly in Ringgold, just over the Georgia state line) he shares with Sheryl, his lovely wife of many years. These travel plans have been in the works since way back in the fall; Sheryl and her two daughters who straddle … Continue reading Reflection: A Father’s Day Gift
In Which We Visit New England to Celebrate the Life of a Family Matriarch Only a few days home from our ambitious travels, and we’ve concluded the sacred institution that is The American Road Trip is in a perilous state at a moment the world is still emerging from COVID, a moment we hoped things might have changed for the better since traveling (moving!) when … Continue reading April 2023 Travelogue: Road Trip
It’s almost like a luge track,” The Chef observed during the winter of 2014. I had been in Vermont for only about a year and a half but was already in my second place there. My first place had been an idyllic cottage on picturesque Lake Morey, where I damn near ran out of cash owing to an errant ex who failed to honor the … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: We Have No Snow But We Do Have Eleanor
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
Carolina Thinklings 