Valentine’s Day Photo Gallery

Valentine’s Day Photo Gallery

Thank you all for sending me such great photos of your sweethearts and sweet treats! Here are some of the people, pets, and food celebrating Valentine’s Day. Keep emailing me your photos until February 18, when I’ll choose a $50.oo gift card winner

Tijuana dogs with homemade buns and memories

Tijuana dogs with homemade buns and memories

We saw Tijuana dogs – aka TJ dogs – all over San Diego last month, from the Marriott’s Tequila Grille to Little Italy’s Craft + Commerce to the food vendors on the walkway next to the otherwise staid USS Midway Museum.   Tijuana dogs are...
Bacon jam – the best recipe yet

Bacon jam – the best recipe yet

December 14, 2011. My 21st anniversary of meeting LL and the 20th anniversary of our engagement. An occasion that called for – at the very least – a dinner treat – but dinner was elusive that night. Kid Two had a 6:00 keyboard lesson, his first with...

Maggie’s crazy Christmas kitchen

It’s been a wild ride around here lately! The boys each survived their fall semesters with honors, and their parents survived our two birthdays – both of us hobbling around for some period of time (stitches for mom, surgery for dad). There was a small but...
What to do with that Halloween candy

What to do with that Halloween candy

Never mind your leftover Halloween candy – what are you going to do with all those candy wrappers? If you’re one of the few among us with a more rarefied vision of the world, you may already be saving them to create some objects of beauty like the M&M...
Thanksgiving dinner in a roll

Thanksgiving dinner in a roll

A complete Thanksgiving feast rolled up in flatbread and served to thirty 6th graders – portable, healthy, fun to eat, inexpensive, and delicious.

A Big Sur Thanksgiving, 1939

A Big Sur Thanksgiving, 1939

Knowing how to brine a perfect turkey is not as important as the ability to remember what, exactly, to give thanks for. Here is novelist Lillian Bos Ross’ description of her 1939 Big Sur Thanksgiving meal. Lillian Bos is one of my heroes; read on to find out more about her.

Traditionally Halloween

Traditionally Halloween

What are the traditions – new or old – you do at this time every year? For me, the process of creating and carrying on traditions is one of the most challenging aspects of parenting for me, in part because my energies and interests don’t always match what the calendar and drugstore displays tell me it’s time to do. We’ve made some progress, though; click to hear how.