Chicken dumplings, pumpkin curry, two art-world mysteries, a Cotswolds bookshop romance, and a big week in Milwaukee I stayed up late Wednesday night to watch the Brewers win the World Series. I am not a sports fan as a general rule, but this is my hometown team, and I had a very personal reason to…
Gifts for foodies and home cooks, with the kitchen tools, cookbooks and pantry treats I use and love in my own kitchen. My kitchen is where I spend most of my happiest hours, so gifts for foodies are some of my favorite to choose. I bake to relax, I cook for the people I love,…
Gifts for men who have everything, chosen with the help of my husband, who owns and uses every one of them. Men are hard to buy for. At least the men in my life are, because none of them want or need a thing. So every year I go straight to the source and ask…
Pumpkin everything, cozy books, a Thanksgiving dish swap with friends, and a birthday I am very happy about. Welcome to the November musings, with plenty of things to do in November. The calendar says the month begins on Sunday, but my kitchen has been living in it for weeks, with pumpkin in nearly everything that…
Fudgy squares with chopped Oreos, a dark chocolate drizzle, and Halloween sprinkles Truth be told, Halloween is my least favorite holiday. I do not like scary things. I do like the candy, and I like the kids in costumes, so I keep the holiday to the parts I like. Halloween Oreo brownies are the candy…
On overheard conversations, the real cost of blogging, a cozy Dorset novel, and a Ralph Lauren video that will make you want to mend something What a weekend. Sausage races, the Brewers winning Game Two of the World Series, the farmers market, dinner with friends, baking, and life in general. I am going into this…
A Victorian villa in Brixton, Betty Soldi’s Florence studio, Judi Dench, a hidden Monet collection, and the beauty hiding inside an ordinary week Good morning, friends. I have been thinking about Instagram this week. When you scroll through, everyone else’s life looks glamorous and exciting and basically magazine-worthy. Some of those lives are real. Not…
Skillet enchiladas, butternut squash pizza, three books worth your time, and a few links worth clicking The weather this week has been exactly what I want fall to be. Cool, crisp mornings where you actually need a jacket, sunny afternoons that manage to be warm without being hot, and evenings cool enough to sit around…
Caramelized apples, pecan streusel and a spash of Bill’s bourbon mek the most delicious apple bourbon loaf cake There is one hour of my life when I am guaranteed to sit still, and it happens in a salon chair. Cape on, color setting, nothing to do but read whatever is stacked on the little table…
Gifts for book lovers and bibliophiles, with the books I am giving this year, cozy things for the reading chair and a few treats for the library lover. I will read anything. Cereal boxes, the back of the shampoo bottle, the little card that comes with a bouquet. I grew up in a house where…
A homemade holiday gift they will actually use Every October, I start thinking about the people on my gift list. Not what they need (most of us have what we need) but what might make them stop for a moment, open something unexpected, and feel genuinely thought about. A jar of homemade pear-apple chutney, tied…
A heavy weekend watching France, a fire in the fireplace at home, a romance for fans of Addie LaRue, and an hour with Stephen Fry I have been watching scenes this weekend from my beloved France, specifically Limoges burning. On Saturday, at the end of a protest, a group of hooded rioters broke into the…
