last week i wasn’t in the best of moods so the friday giveaway was put aside to make room for a very winded rant. now that i’ve climbed down from the ledge and all is right with the world, the free book love returns! every friday i’ll be giving away books and other assorted goodies [...]

Whether you’re purchasing your first or your 40th cookbook, the cookbook section of your local bookstore can inspire feelings of vertigo–-the seemingly infinite choices! Great tomes with dozens of glossy pages displaying velvety trifles, grilled flank steaks and burgundy risottos might cause the novice to shriek: could I really cook any of this? While [...]

I read Homer’s The Iliad many, many moons ago. I somehow connect that memory with sleep. From what I remember the epic focused on decade-long war between Greece & the city of Troy – all over a woman (Helen), the fall of Hector, the quarrel between stubborn Achilles and proud Agamemnon and many, many [...]

Listen to the buzz about organics and your head will spin. Wordy labels, colorful, detailed brochures and certification labels are supposed to make your visit to the grocery store easier, but is it? Supermarket chains and organic super stores want you to believe that the more information they arm you with, the more informed [...]

I firmly believe that you really have to injure yourself to make your first batch of successful scones. The last time I attempted the scone, I got all improvisational (big mistake) and swapped out white flour for whole wheat without adjusting any of the liquid ingredients. When you play all improvisational cook when you [...]

Normally, I am an incredibly patient person. I don’t get mad all that often, and it takes a lot to get me in a tether. However, this week, particularly today, I am at my breaking point. My day job pays me to deal with writers who are sometimes so incredible you want to do the [...]

why go small? why settle for a measly little crumb of a cookie when you can indulge, be decadent and savor a grand ole cookie for the days when you’re kicking back (like today in this miserable rain), donning your fuzzy socks, and sipping on a bowlful of hot chocolate. normally, i am [...]

Have you checked out Writers Revealed recently? No? Well, what are you waiting for, fox trots? This week we’re discussing Virginia Woolf’s seminal work, To The Lighthouse, we’re chatting with Alison Weaver (Gone to the Crazies) & Katherine Taylor (Rules for Saying Goodbye) this weekend, and we had an amazing foodie discussion (because, in [...]

i’ve never been good with a muffin. they have either come out of the oven hard disks ready for proper roman sport or they have fallen apart at the slightest touch. for years i have tried to make a goddamn blueberry muffin and have failed miserably at it. four years ago i shouted at [...]

every friday i’ll be giving away books and other assorted goodies to folks who subscribe to my mailing list (see box to the right). i have yet to send a newsletter, but baby steps, party people, baby steps. it’ll be a random drawing.
this week i’m giving away three books (one book/winner):
*The Dissident by Nell [...]

i saw this with jasmin last night and i still can’t articulate how moving it was. i will make a feeble attempt next week. in the interim, you must watch this.
and i have a confession to make. i have a small problem with disposable water bottles. but that’s all changing. i’m going to cease being [...]

for me, there is no other creature comfort than the walls of a bookstore (unless you count me licking the inside of my mixing bowl, lapping up any leftover cookie dough, but that’s neither here nor there) and the tomes within. books were safe, minor fortresses if you will, and i’d spend endless hours [...]

with the sleepy summer coming to a close (and i am indeed grateful for cooler nights and violet skies), all of my dreams of lazy weekends cuddled up to nabokov, sebald and dead poets gave way to a reimagined jamestown breathed new life via portable electronic devices and frightening politics, a memoir about language [...]

did you just think i was going to get said stand mixer and wait until fall to rock it out?! oh dear friends, you are sorely mistaken. although i had to physically restrain myself from breaking the mixer out of the box with my teeth at the crack of dawn, i did scream with [...]

okay you hoarders of free goodies (admit it, you smuggled all those hotel soaps and fluffy hand towels into that tiny duffle bag) and purveyors of schwag, get ready because the weekly giveaway is about to begin. every friday i’ll be giving away books and other assorted goodies to folks who subscribe to my mailing [...]