Inspired by this article in the Times of London, I holed up and took a lovely, restorative vacation at home after Christmas. Christmas was lovely — we all had a great time. There was lots of food and wine and by ten that night we had six kids under five doing the Toddler Disco in the middle of the living room floor. Perfect. Look into Alpenglow rentals if you are planning a relaxing vacation. I woke up on the 26th a tiny bit hung over, and decided the tree was coming down. It was a pretty tree and we had…
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I got all the boxes in the mail — granted, the last two, to my aunt and my grandmother (who live together) didn’t go out until yesterday — but they celebrate Christmas on whichever day next week is most convenient — and well, my grandmother is 96, and while she still has most of her marbles, she’s old enough not to care if her chocolate truffles get there a day late. I love making food presents for everyone — but next year I have to remember that it does actually take some time, and perhaps I should start sooner than…
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I managed to get the last packaged in the mail this afternoon and I’m swamped putting out some last-minute fires at my Corporate Job. In the meantime — check out this five-part investigative piece on the Ameya Preserve that New West is publishing. I’ve only read part one thus far, but seems like a cogent discussion of the issues.
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It’s been a weekend of cooking cooking cooking … with a couple of small breaks for tree trimming and kids’ recitals … So if you’re on my Christmas list — stop reading now. Go away. Come back after your box arrives. For the rest of you — here’s the weekend: I made truffles for my grandmother. I made chocolate hazelnut cookies, pfeffernussen (I can’t find the recipe online — but it was a good one — with grated lemon rind and some candied citron and orange and ginger — they came out chewy and delicious, not powdery and terrible like…
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Because too many of the people on my Christmas list read my blog, I can’t be too specific — but let’s say that this weekend is all about baking — cookies, cake, pate (well, it’s baked anyhow) and chocolate-chile truffles for my grandmother — I have a hunch that it might be another lost weekend as far as writing goes, since there’s so much to do, and my favorite children are back in town. It’s the holiday rush! And although it sounds a little hectic — I’m looking forward to a house full of cinnamon and cardamon and cloves. I’m…
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The least interesting part of Doris Lessing’s Nobel Prize speech has been getting a lot of attention this week — the part where she claims that the speed by which the internet has been developed has led to a sort of mesmerism by screen, and has subsequently caused a serious devaluation of the book and of reading and of education and expertise. I don’t think she’s entirely wrong, nor do I think the online reaction, that this is the part of her speech where she sounds most like a cranky old woman, is invalid either. But that was not the…
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I’ve been using the shreddy stuff out of my shredder to pack boxes with. It’s recycleable, something I’d have to throw out or compost myself, and since I have a huge backlog of old manuscript paged, a nearly-endless resource. I packed the black Chamba pot I sent to my cousin Elizabeth in shredded credit card offers, and it arrived safe and sound. So sorry all my friends and family out there — you’re going to have to contend with paper shreds. Not as bad as styrofoam peanuts, but kind of a pain, I know …
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The past few years I’ve been giving people food presents — we all have so much stuff in our lives, so why do we need more little objects? Particularly for those folks on our lists who we love, and to whom we want to give a little something, but who aren’t family or the kind of friends we buy big presents for — you know, the folks you’d buy a candle or bath products of something like that. Last year I did really swanky Christmas baskets for my family members — cookies, chocolates, some jam I made, cheese, a little…
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No matter how much French and Italian food I might cook the rest of the year, for me, Christmas is all about English Food (well, and German — I did grow up in the Midwest after all). I don’t understand people who have turkey for Christmas — people! you just had a turkey! Branch out! (And in our family, ham was for Easter, not Christmas. Every family has it’s holiday food rules and that was just one of ours.) No, Christmas in our family was always beef — either a whole filet for a crowd (boring, even when done as…
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There was a terrific little piece on Zen Habits last week, Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer, and Restore Kindness. I read it right after I’d come back from paying my local utilities bill — there never seems any point to paying that bill by mail since the office is just down on the other side of town. So, once a month, I drive down, hand my check through the drive up window, chat with the lady who always puts dog cookies in with my receipt, and drive off with a little smile and with two dogs happily…