HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOUR WIDOWED FRIEND WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW. SHE’D TELL YOU IF SHE COULD. BUT SHE CAN’T. THAT’S PART OF THE PROBLEM. 1. Please understand that right now your widowed friend is not herself. Literally not herself. Most of the constructs of self she had have vanished, some temporarily, some permanently. Everything — her role in life,… Read More
Janus, the Roman god who gave January its name, was two-faced. Not in the saying-mean-things-behind-someone’s back way: rather, he had two faces on either side of his handsome head. Thus, he could look forward, into the future, and backwards, into the past. Notice, though, he had no face for “now”, which is — moment to moment, second by second —… Read More
Ronni’s Appalachian-Style Cornbread (Gluten-Free) This is my favorite traditional-style Southern cornbread, and the one my friend Ronni Lundy grew up eating in Corbin, Kentucky. And to which she pledges allegiance! No sugar, no flour, amen. Ronni says, “If God had meant cornbread to have sugar in it, he’d have called it cake.” Here we have the apocryphal luckiness given by… Read More
Extra-Moist Cheese and Black Pepper Cornbread Makes 2 8-X 8 pans You might want to double this; most people will want at least two pieces. The batter will fill the pans only about halfway up; it’s so moist that otherwise (if, for instance, you tried to make it one big pan). the middle part won’t be done. This way, you… Read More
Four-Citrus Golden Pico de Gallo with Mint Instead of the typical tomatoes, this pico uses citrus fruits – oranges, blood oranges, and pink grapefruit – to provide the juicy acidic component necessary in this dish, which is almost as much salad as it is condiment. It provides a nice, light, refreshing balance to the other foods on the plate, and,… Read More
Citrus Golden Ring Cake I this cake lucky for New Years? Why yes: round foods represent for the cycles of the year and the roundness of a full life; yellow and orange because, they’re signifiers of wealth. But the inherent goodness of this rich, lemony cake, dense and moist, makes anyone who takes a bite feel lucky indeed, on the… Read More
Brazilian Style Collard Green Salad Raw collard greens? A a few brief years ago it would have hardly been comprehensible to most Americans, especially Southerners. But times have changed with the advent of kale salads. While many find the texture of kale objectionable – its curliness, if it is not cut finely enough, can get caught in the throat – … Read More
To jump straight to the featured recipes, use these links: Spicy-Smoky East-West Black-Eyed Peas Brazilian-Style Collard Green Salad Extra-Moist Cheese-Black Pepper Cornbread Ronni’s Southern-Style Gluten-Free Cornbread Four-Citrus Pico de Gallo Golden Orange-Pecan Cake with a Citrus Glaze Otherwise, stay put on this page and join me for an exploration of easygoing New Years entertaining and how and why certain foods… Read More
I NEVER BELIEVED IN SANTA CLAUS. NOT EVEN AS A KID, FOR REASONS I’LL MAKE CLEAR. BUT THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON ANGELS. If you want an inspirational, heartwarming story about Christmas, look elsewhere. I grew up the child of adamantly non-practicing Jews, in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, then predominantly Irish-, Polish-, and Italian-Catholic. My mother, Charlotte Zolotow, used to… Read More
Our beloved partner is no longer on earth. And now it’s the holidays. Sometimes other people, not realizing they’re doing it, ask us to dress grief up in party clothes. We may even ask it of ourselves. But we don’t have to do it. In the fall of 2004, Richard, my friend Kay’s husband and the love of her life,… Read More
This, harvest-time, is my favorite time of year to go to the farmer’s market and garden-stands. It’s a cornucopia! Now, harvesting technically begins in spring, when the first asparagus tips poke up boldly through the still-cold soil. And harvesting goes wild in the summer, when cukes and zukes overwhelm us with their fecundity, when the okra, its pods pointing happily… Read More
Sometime in the mid-80’s, Joe Head and I were sitting together in the Western District Carroll County courthouse, watching our City Council get sued for violating the Freedom of Information Act. And Joe said something so funny, endearing, smart, exasperating, and lovely, something which so encapsulated the loving dynamic tension that frequently animates my funky, quirky little former home-town, Eureka… Read More
