When Pink is Mauve

When Pink is Mauve

The young female protagonist in my WIP struggles with the impending divorce of her mother and father. She knows her father is extremely predjudiced against what were called "coloreds" in 1967, but he's her Daddy and she loves him for all of the good things about him....

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We’re All Colored

We’re All Colored

It's 1967 and the young protagonist in my WIP gets a visit from her school principal who happens to be black. In those days the polite way of referring to a person of African heritage was to call them "colored." While this scene is completely fictional, I did have a...

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Wishes for Dishes

Wishes for Dishes

One of my mother’s fondest memories of me as a young child occurred when she was scouting for Autumn Leaf dishes. It was 1962, we lived in Ontario, California, and I was about three years old. She had loaded my two sisters and me into our big, lime green, 1954...

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Outrageous Tomato Pie

Outrageous Tomato Pie

Having grown up in Southern California, my family grew tomatoes year around. It wasn't uncommon to have tomatoes still ripening on our backyard vines at Christmas time. Now that we live in the South where tomato pie is a staple during the summer, I cannot understand...

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Launch Party! All About the Bronte Sisters

Launch Party! All About the Bronte Sisters

Registration to my book launch party is now open in Zoom. I hope you'll join me in celebrating these fascinating women who wrote novels far ahead of their time. We'll have a reading, discussion, some Bronte trivia, a Bronte scavenger hunt and some other surprises. You...

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This is Cloud Coffee

This is Cloud Coffee

During the early weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown, social media blew up with photos and recipes for a new way to make sweet, frothy, luscious iced coffee. Being a coffee-lover, I immediately looked up the recipe. The method is so simple, the presentation so impressive,...

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Day 12: The 12 Breads of Christmas–Pannetone

Day 12: The 12 Breads of Christmas–Pannetone

Many, many years ago—way back in my teens—I first noticed Pannetone on the shelves of upscale department stores. Packaged with beautiful wrappings and tied with satin bows, these square boxes piqued my interest solely for the look of them. Even though my father had...

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Day 10: The 12 Breads of Christmas–Brioche

Day 10: The 12 Breads of Christmas–Brioche

When French peasants were starving from a lack of bread Marie Antoinette was rumored to say, “Let them eat cake.” The traditional French translation for cake is brioche, the velvety soft, sweet bread of France. (This phrase cast the young princess as callous and...

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Day 9: The 12 Breads of Christmas–Sourdough

Day 9: The 12 Breads of Christmas–Sourdough

Growing up in California I was introduced to good sourdough bread at a very young age. My Italian father grew up in San Francisco and insisted my mother buy sourdough. We weren't well off in my childhood and my mother shopped at a day-old bakery where she bought large...

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Day 8: 12 Breads of Christmas—Japanese Milk Bread

Day 8: 12 Breads of Christmas—Japanese Milk Bread

When we lived in Japan I loved the soft, fluffy white bread sold at neighborhood bakeries and supermarkets. Sometimes the loaves were completely square, like an old pullman loaf, while other times they were crowned with a beautiful arch. The texture was pillowy soft,...

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12 Breads of Christmas–Olive Parmesan Loaf

12 Breads of Christmas–Olive Parmesan Loaf

Today’s bread is a hearty white bread stuffed with olives and enriched with shredded parmesan cheese. It tastes wonderful hot or cold, and is delicious slathered in butter, or smeared with herbed cheese. Adventurous types could even make sandwiches out of it. (Salami...

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12 Breads of Christmas: Quick Challah

12 Breads of Christmas: Quick Challah

Everyone has seen the beautiful braided breads called challah. In Jewish culture, challah is eaten on sabbath, and for ceremonial occasions such as Passover and other Jewish holidays. Challah is soft and pulls apart like cotton candy. The shiny crust is achieved by...

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12 Breads of Christmas: American Pumpernickel

12 Breads of Christmas: American Pumpernickel

[mpprecipe-recipe:7]I am a fool for a rich, dark bread. Over the holidays my mother used to buy pumpernickel bread to eat with cheese and liverwurst. These were small, rectangular loaves with thin, square slices that were dense, hearty, and sweetly bitter. German...

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12 Breads of Christmas — Honey Wheat

12 Breads of Christmas — Honey Wheat

Honey wheat bread is a comfort like no other and emits an aroma that warms the heart and conjurs memories of grandmothers and bakeries and dinners in great restaurants. I've presented honey wheat as the second bread of Christmas because it's easy to make and...

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12 Breads of Christmas — Winter White

12 Breads of Christmas — Winter White

Welcome to my 12 Breads of Christmas series. This first bread I’m introducing in my 12 Breads of Christmas series, White Sandwich Bread, sounds rather bland, right? Yet this recipe is the skeleton for every bread recipe I’ve developed through the years. This is the...

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12 Breads of Christmas

12 Breads of Christmas

Bread. The food of life. I’ve been baking bread for my family for about 25 years. Every Christmas season I bake bread for my neighbors and friends as a way to thank them for enriching my life. This year I wanted to extend the good will I feel during the holidays to...

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Words and Crepes in Southern Pines

Words and Crepes in Southern Pines

I left Southern Pines on a wet, gray day, after a week-long writing residency at the stately Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities. Departing on a day like this is preferable to leaving on a sunny day when the blue skies beckon walks in the gardens and...

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