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
It is five of five in the morning and I am hanging my head over the sofa from behind it, about to awaken a sleeping chef until I realize he is wide awake. I am driving him to an early appointment at the doctor’s office in an hour for a little thing, so it is time to get moving. He is not fine, he tells … Continue reading Reflection: The Current State of Things
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
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
And B is for bicycle wreck, which is how last week started. The skin on my legs is variegated in the most gorgeous technicolor hues right now, and there’ve been surprise areas of new mottling every day. Funny I didn’t feel all those pop-up bruises from the first instant I hit the pavement. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice it to say, … Continue reading Sunday Almanac: A Is for Anniversary
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
The last two things I remember about the day I left Knoxville forever were gripping fear and a cameo of my ex-husband’s backside as he stood before the kitchen sink with the tap open. He was washing his hands (metaphorically too, I suppose) while the morning sunlight filtered through the stained-glass window framing him; I hoped with all my might he was bawling, but I … Continue reading Reflection: I Have Stories to Tell
Carolina Thinklings 