food essay
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Butternut Squash Soup
“The sun’ll come out…next Thursday.” That was the weatherman’s snide remark on the radio the other morning as my windshield wipers swished away. (And the song from the musical Annie is still stuck in my head.) By Saturday I am finally able to sit out on the café porch, surrounded by deep green leaves backlit by patches of chartreuse Continue reading
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Gouttières and Dutch boys’ suits
This is transition week. Next Monday teachers report back to work. This is the week I’m torn by what to do. Do I sit and relax? Do I frantically finish summer projects? Do I “set my face toward Jerusalem” and dig into school work? All of the above? None of the above? (None of the Continue reading
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Peach Jammin’ 2011
I will not buy peaches in a grocery store. I don’t care if they do say “locally grown.” Shipping to a store still means a lag time from orchard to kitchen, and in order not to have gloppy bruised peaches, the fruit must be picked on the early side. Peaches picked too soon never ripen properly. So instead Continue reading
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Beets
Some of my most vivid childhood memories involve foods. Ok, duh. A child spends a larger percentage of his life eating than an adult. Take little Mini-Mo, for example. At two months, he has a very small repertoire of things to dream about: eating, eliminating what he eats, smiling at Mommy and Daddy, playing with his Continue reading
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Wild Violets
We don’t have a lawn. We have non-wooded areas that get mowed. Occasionally those areas are supplemented with grass seed, and the grass learns to live in cooperation with all the other ground covers already occupying the yard. Right now the yard is sprinkled with delicate little violets, as are my flower beds and the vegetable garden, Continue reading
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Sloppy Joe
Did we jinx the Ravens by serving Sloppy Joe’s at our play-off party? Or was it because I did not buy that Flaco red wine that I saw at Calvert? (I didn’t buy it because it wasn’t spelled Flacco and because it said it was a good sangria red. Well, that told me that I Continue reading
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Adventures in liverwurst
Pioneer John is making the most of his deer bounty. Not content with mere roasts, he decided to use the organ meats (liver and heart) to make liverwurst. For those of you shaking your heads and laughing while saying “Poor Kathy…,” it’s not really that big of a deal. I know for a fact that some Continue reading
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Stocking up for winter…
I’m almost ready to host the next big snowstorm sleepover. The freezer is filling up with venison and turkey stock and Christmas cookies. Add a few loaves of raisin bread and stock up the bar in the man cave and we’re good to go. John spent all day processing his two Bambis. After dinner I joined in Continue reading
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A-Hunting They Will Come
Some people think it’s lonely living in the woods. Not so. Especially during hunting season. There is often someone out there in the woods and frequently they stop in for coffee (in the a.m.) or beer (after an evening hunt). Around the kitchen table, they shoot the breeze with John and debrief from their hours Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 