Recently at a party I chatted with a new acquaintance while she worked on a hand-sewing project. To me, this was normal party behavior. My family members take knitting or some other handwork everywhere to keep hands busy. My new acquaintance Mary Beth was making 18th century stays. ...
The last few years, I’ve made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. It was never a staple in our household, until I found a particularly good recipe. This year though, I’ve decided to go all out, and make three pies — traditional pecan and apple. For the third I’ll either stick with ...
Recently, at a social gathering, my significant other was chatting with a friend about electric cars. He tried to pull me into the conversation, but I was chatting with someone else. He thought I would be interested in this topic, both because I drive an electric car and because he ...
Over the last two months I’ve spent a lot of my spare time putting up food. It brings me joy now and through the colder months and provides locally grown food. I like knowing where my food comes from (local farms, mostly, not having grown much this year myself). To make a chili I don’t ...
We have a bumper crop of apples this year — we’ve harvested many bushels worth and some are still on our trees, ready for picking. I had visions of swimming in apple cider. Well, maybe not swimming. But visions of pressing plenty. On the day I got started I only had a little time, ...
You’ve heard of Christmas cactus, and probably Thanksgiving and Easter cacti. But have you heard of Halloween cactus? Probably not, because it doesn’t exist … but I had to look it up and double check when one of my holiday cacti started blooming a few weeks ago. The dark pink ...