Anniversary Champagne Cake

My parents celebrated 41 years of marriage on Monday, and on that bright day in 1976, they served champagne cake to their guests in Portland, OR, my mother’s favorite. Mom recently came to New Orleans for a visit, and in addition to entertaining the chickens, restructuring my patio and filling raised beds made chicken-proof by […]

Caramel Tart for Mother’s Day

Regarding my mother, there is no example of her patience and grace more profound than to mention how she tolerated with relative indifference my Ewws and rolling eyes and snubbed nose at her cooking for nearly two decades—and now this: Some seeds have very, very thick coats. Trust the loyalty of sprouts—in time they break […]

Pepperoni Pizza

The magic of the Whidbey MFA residency passed too quick! I have the post-residency blues akin to the post-pizza blues—too good, too much, too fast. And although right now I feel as if I shall be full for weeks, tomorrow, I’ll already be hungry for more. Love is half a longing possession does nothing to […]