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
I have been spending long hours writing, but working on a more ambitious project outside of the blog. It is high time to check in, not quite high summer but sure feels that way. Against all odds, when the atmosphere outside is this oppressive (but not this oppressive), somehow our screen porch has remained a tolerable place to linger over coffee in the morning, iced … Continue reading Sunday Almanac 7.7.24: Summer Is Here
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
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
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
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 