[Spring flowers, April 2008.]
When T.S. Eliot called April the ‘cruellest month’ ( breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/ Memory and desire, stirring/ Dull roots with spring rain) I think he did it a disservice. True, clouds are hovering over San Francisco today, and last night I fell asleep to the drip-drip-drip of [...]

Dear Kate,
Today is your birthday — I’m getting this in just under the wire — and so I am sending you virtual cookies. And cupcakes. And maybe also a bowlful of quinoa soup because I heard that the other day you were feeling under-the-weather. Here it is sunny and breezy and I [...]

OK, so maybe I lied a little. I did make something new the other night, though admittedly it was a riff on something I’d made before: a lentil soup/stew.
Let me backtrack. Last week I ordered a ‘mystery box’ from Mariquita Farms, knowing there might be a few things in there with which I [...]

Maybe it’s the broccoli soup recipes floating around lately, or the fact that last weekend wore me out (in a good way, but still), and this week was no slouch, either, but all I wanted to do this weekend was sleep in, and then make broccoli soup. On Saturday, I did both of [...]

[Weekend lunch, January 2008.]
When I have just a bit of bread with olive oil, or hummus, I always think of my friend Simon, because he is a bread-lover in the extreme. Last spring, when he and his wife came to visit me and I took them up to Armstrong Woods, we stopped for sandwiches [...]