{Roasted tomatoes with lavender, for an npr story, August 2009.]
Here it is: I absolutely might consider breaking up/not even going out with someone if we didn’t agree on certain food … things. (I can hear my brother’s shout of disbelief all the way from Maine as he reads this — and then, Nicole, you are [...]

[Des fleurs, April 2009.]
I was talking with a friend the other day as we’re wont to do, and somehow during the course of it we came up with a great idea: writing about writers with whom you’d like to cook, have a drink or slice of cake, or go for a walk in the high [...]

The other night for whatever reason I got to feeling a little lonely. I arrived home — my apartment, after a weekend’s minor cleaning frenzy, was full of freshly-laundered, hang-dried clothes, which is one of my very favorite smells besides, of course, a chocolate cake just taken out of the oven — a bit [...]

[Caramels, December 2008.]
Last week the moon came out early — during the day, even, so I saw it as I walked to the bus in the late afternoon lingering light — and it was just a slim sliver, a perfect crescent. I wish I could have shown it to you it was so pretty [...]

[Pumpkin, barley and root vegetables, November 2008.]
For all of my incomprehension about just how exactly we’re right smack in the middle of November and not still ensconced on a deserted beach somewhere along the California coast at the end of July, I’m finally starting to feel that little thrill that comes along with the holidays. [...]