My Roast Chicken Rules 

            Yesterday, I spent the day at a Food writing workshop and potluck supper in Watsonville. An event my mother had alerted me to  late/… Read full post »

As a child, I remember loving the Mary Poppins books by P. L. Travers.  Like Jane and Michael Banks, I loved  seeing what remarkable items Mary Poppins would  pull out of her flowered carpet bag on her latest visit to the Banks’ nursery.  Alas, I… Read full post »

A fellow Open Salon writer, Dom Macco, came up with an idea awhile back about a fictional character named “Carl” who has recently died. In the story, other fictional characters have been asked to prepare eulogies for Carl’s funeral, but each has little or no actual knowledge of who… Read full post »

  The assignment was that the story should include a tent, a rainstorm, and a stray dog. Here is my interpretation. 

Athens B.C.E.

       “Out of my way, cur!”

  &nbs… Read full post »

http://open.salon.com/blog/just-walt/2011/03/10/opinions_are_like_a-holeswisconsin_unions_politics_1 

Walter, as a public employee in Santa Clara County for almost 21 years now, I have to respond to your post of last week.  But since my initial reaction to what you wrote was pre/… Read full post »

 This post was inspired by Scanner's post on March 3, in which he reported Scott Walker has imposed a $1,000.00 fine for prank calls in Wisconsin.  (Way to make yourself look tough, gov!)  I thought maybe the time was ripe for the Wisconsin 14 to tell the gov how they feel… Read full post »

 Le Meilleur Français pour le Voyageur Littéraire

(Better French for the Literary Traveler) 

            I first met Monsieur and Madame Thibaut and leur fils Paul and leur fille Catherine in Septembe… Read full post »

In March 2009, I posted my recipe for homemade lemon curd.  Throughout that year, my kitchen became a miniature lemon curd factory—I was hooked on the stuff, and I got everyone else I knew hooked too. I even gave it away to co-workers at Christmastime. That origi… Read full post »

Every morning while I eat breakfast, I read my daily horoscope.  Mostly because the San Francisco Chronicle prints them on the same page with the funnies, which I also read every morning. I take the one no more seriously than the other, and pretty much assume that if my/… Read full post »

      Last January, in another Salon Kitchen Challenge, I wrote about being an anti-banana hardliner.  My childhood loathing of cheese was hardly less emphatic.  My sister and I both lo/… Read full post »

Outside my window...

Trees, grass, flowering shrubbery, chilly sunshine.

I am thinking... 

Of  Hawaiian beaches. 

Of the weekend’s events in Tucson…still. What a perfect storm of American hot-button issues from the constant aural barrage of angry rhetoric making sane publ… Read full post »

Happiest of birthdays to you, Dear Fusun!

Alas, it is too cold even in California to sit outside and make a mosaic table, but I've approximated one as best I can above.  I hope you are at the start of a joyous, productive and fulfilling year!  OS is the… Read full post »

 My current writing desk, the most satisfactory one I’ve ever had, is a put-it-together yourself wooden corner desk from Ikea that fits neatly into a corner of my bedroom.  I sit at it at sort of a 45 degree angle to the rest of the bed room with my back to/… Read full post »

     Back in July, I responded to an Open Call about things we make. My weird predilection is making miniature handpainted houses  out of watercolor paper, but it got me the most resposnses I've ever had for any post I've written here on OS.  Except for the  one abo… Read full post »

December 21, 2010

Dear Mom, Dad and Aunties Dorothy and Edna,

            Christmas has rolled around again, and well, blood is thicker than water. At least, we hope that's the way you feel. Donald, the/… Read full post »

Gingerburg, Christmas County:  Early yesterday  morning, the residents of Gingerburg were rudely awakened by a loud rasping sound against the walls and roofs of their homes. When they went out to investigate, to their horror, they found a large gray Felis Ca… Read full post »

Viennese Crescents, an Old-World cousin of the Mexican Wedding Ball, is one of the best nut cookies you can ever hope to eat.  I do not know for a fact whether the recipe did  originate in Vienna Austria since my mother clipp/… Read full post »

Hanukkah begins at sunset this evening, so even though I'm not Jewish, I want to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all at Open Salon who celebrate it.  Never pass up an occasion to light up the darkness! Better an excess of good spirits than a poverty of them.  We seem to… Read full post »

My mother is the chef de cuisine of more than fifty years’ worth of my family’s Thanksgivings. She’s the one with the accumulated expertise of what time in the morning to face that big raw bird, stuff its’ cavities full of bready dressing, set it on the rack, pour a cup/… Read full post »

  I have to admit, Salon's 2010  list of hot guys doesn't really float my boat. 

My crush for 2010?

  Chef Aarón Sanchez.

My choice is Chef Aarón Sanchez. He wears his chef whites with a certain smouldering authority, doesn’t he?  … Read full post »

       It’s dangerous to invite me to list things that annoy me, especially when everything  seems to be getting under my skin, lately.  Some of my irritation is because of events in my working life this week, some is just free-floating anno/… Read full post »

Both my grandfathers, Ned Crawford, and Louis Houle, served in World War I. Both came home whole in body.   I never had a chance to meet Louis Houle my paternal grandfather  who died when my father was six. He served in the war and while the war didn’t kill h… Read full post »

All we ask is that you keep an open mind as you read this proposal. We understand that you may view our idea with skepticism, and even hostility. It’s new, and new ideas are often uncomfortable and take time to catch on. It may be that we won’t be ready to… Read full post »