There isn’t a more summery flavor for cake than anything citrus. Luscious Lemon (always in season). Sublime Lime (so much slurpage factor in my Key Lime Cake – coming to a blog post near you). Pink Grapefruit (that’s going to be a doozy). And Outrageous Orange – which is my “cakeover” (cake-talk for “makeover”) recipe for this Hot-as-Hell July. Aubyn insisted on making me a … Continue reading Cakeover: Outrageous Orange
Whether I’m writing about the Cajun towns of my youth (Eunice and Ville Platte) or the cities I’ve lived in since (Baton Rouge, Lafayette, New Orleans, Brussels, London, Warsaw, New York), I find that the best way to get to the true essence of a place is to describe how it smells. Exhibit A: New Orleans. To be sure, the sights, sounds, and tastes are … Continue reading New Orleans: A fĂȘte for the nostrils
I know it’s blazing out there lately, but this soup is full of crunchy veggies and healthy chicken – and is ethereally light, compared to many hearty soups more suited for winter. This particular dish is what you get when you add noodles to traditional Thai Tom Yum Soup. The idea for it came to me one Sunday in the bluster of January while I … Continue reading This soup is addictive: Tom Yum with noodles.
Growing up, I wrote poetry long before I wrote prose. I don’t do it so much any more, but every now and then something happening in the world at large, or at small, inspires me to write a poem. This one came because of the tentative joy I felt when I became a full citizen of my country – when marriage for people like me … Continue reading Waltz of the Souls
Cornwallville, New York is a hamlet founded around 1788 within the town of Durham in the Catskills region of the state. There’s no grocery store, no stop light, no cafe, and no church (the one it did have was dismantled and re-mantled as part of the Cooperstown Farmers Museum to provide their visitors with some old New York-Greek Revival-church charm, leaving Cornwallville godless, apparently). But … Continue reading Home in Cornwallville
(Parenthetically) Speaking 