Writing the good read
Wandering through a Sears the other day with a friend, we thought that you really missed an opportunity with Sarah Palin. If you had to prettify her for her campaign appearances, why not go to a store that a hockey mom would be more likely to patronize? Why not spend $5,000 at Sears or Target,…
When I was a little girl, we used to fly pretty regularly from San Jose to Los Angeles. We flew on PSA, the airline with stewardesses (that’s what they were called then) in fuchsia and orange hot pants and microminis and funny hats. The planes had smiles and noses painted on the front of them….
I love your writing. I think you are witty and charming and the only thing better than reading you is hearing you read your own work. But most of the time, it’s me reading your books. And most of the time, I’m doing it at night before bed. So I’m begging you, please please please…
It wasn’t that long ago that I was craving (and buying) watermelon and iced lemon ginger green tea. Now, the trees are glowing and I want warm starchy things. Lucky me: I had a recipe I found last fall in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. It was for a bulgar pilaf with chestnuts and brown butter….
I read an insane amount. I shop for books like some women go after Manolo Blahniks, and enjoy the smell of a good bookstore as much as those women do the smell of leather. Books, magazines, blogs: to me the written word is a constant source of delight. When someone asks me what I do…
I realize that you feel a sense of panic about falling polls, but to try to tar Barak Obama as a friend of a terrorist seems a little extreme. Do you really think that he’s a friend of terrorists? Bill Ayers was never convicted of a crime. He may have held beliefs that you don’t…
My childhood friend Pam wrote me a note recently that she couldn’t directly help with a project because she was still woozy from a great bowl of Pho. It was August. Granted, Seattle in August isn’t hot, at least not often. But soup in August? I don’t get it. Unless it’s gazpacho. We have a…
Second to soup, stew is one of the pleasures of chilly evenings in fall and winter. Making one is simple. Together with a salad and a nice loaf of bread, it can be a great dinner to serve for guests, or (since it freezes well) something you can pull out of the freezer in the…
Stock is the basis not just of soups, but an ingredient in numerous stews and other dishes. A good one can make a deceptively simple dish seem like an elegant masterpiece. You’ve roasted your chicken. You’ve eaten the readily accessible meat. Don’t throw away the bones and the meat that you’d really have to work…
Or: The most useful kitchen trick there is A roasted chicken is easy, tasty, and the pathway to many other culinary delights – think homemade soup, great chicken salad sandwiches, or an easy chicken burrito. It also looks splendid on a platter. A couple of caveats: I can’t cut up a roasted chicken so that…