You Heard Me!

As cold temperatures beckon, the idle mind starts to wander- more than usual-  that is! The very thought of a simmering homemade soup and the smell of bread baking evoke a comfort that money can't buy!  Of course with the hefty rise in bread prices, making it yourself is an huge incentive. My mother and Aunt Rosi (Rosi Tante) both baked bread each Monday morning. My mother's bread was very, very substantial (think brick) and she never veered from her original recipe. My Rosi Tante had a much more nuanced depth in her bread making, and she tended to experiment with various types of flour and yeasts; resulting in a more tasty and palatable loaf.  I think there must've been a bread baking rivalry between them, but it didn't matter to me because, ultimately I was the one who had to take the sandwiches to school which my mother had baked.  And, ohhhhh!  Those were sandwiches!  Old ( Transylvanian ) school, that is.  Not everyone at Proctor Elementary School had 1-inch th...

About the only things moving today are my fingers. The days of cooking, shopping and preparing for the family feast have come to an abrupt and bloated end. They came, they ate and they helped to clean-up. It's amazing how much three college kids can consume! The truth be told, I have a difficult time sharing and delegating when it comes to my kitchen. I insist on doing it all-except for peeling the potatoes. My food prep-area is fondly called the Bermuda Triangle , meaning, STAY OUT! TO STUFF, OR NOT TO STUFF... This year, I turned my back on Martha Stewart 's tried-and-true recipe for Roasting the Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey. Frankly, ever since her unfortunate incarceration, it hasn't had the same caché . I've been using Martha's method for years, which involved reams of cheesecloth, immersed in m(p) ounds of butter and bottles of Chardonnay , culminating in a messy basting ritual every 30 minutes. So, after watching the Food Network 's knowledgeable c...

"The Man I Love" ! Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen-Live in Italy- 1961  A perfect interlude on a semi-gloomy day.... the bread is baking, the chicken soup is simmering and these guys are cookin'!

"Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us!" John F. Kennedy -June 26, 1963 And so, you say, the wall came down. A wall kept people in? Yes, those cold grey walls topped with concertina wire and guarded by a brutal and vigilant totalitarian military , so frightening that few dared to attempt to cross it. The tyranny and brutality of the Soviets seemed to be unbeatable; their oppression over the Eastern European satellite nations, mind-boggling. Secrets about neighbors, friends and even f amily activities were passed to Stasi officials to gain favor or special treatment, chipped away at the morality, civility and pride of a once cohesive and industrious people. Medicine, food, clothing and shelter remained at Post WWII levels, with rationing being the norm. All-the-while, their Western European counterparts flourished and enjoyed freedoms which,...

Doesn't this capture the whole feeling of Halloween? This is my daughter, Anika, at the tender witchy age of six. She is all of nineteen years now, and just as bewitching! William Shakespeare (1564-1616) from Macbeth [A dark Cave. In the middle, a Caldron boiling. Thunder.] Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Zombies were having Fun! The party had just begun!" "They played the Mash! The Monster Mash! Tell them Boris sent you..." Being 100% Transylvanian (no kidding) makes this a special time of year for me, however, in Siebenbürgen (trans.Transylvania) each and every day might be considered a hallowed event! Burning a black candle for protection, wearing a necklace of garlic and watching out for ominous black crows is just a casual habit with moi.

Photo: Imagno/Getty ImagesOct 14, 1932 Seems a bit of a dilemma; this pandemic influenza threat. We're all i n for it , no matter what! Even if I were to decide to get inoculated, it appears that only a small fraction of the vaccine has been s hipped to various states in the U.S.A. California h as 36,553,215 residents and only 836,900 doses of vaccine have been shipped. What's up with that? So, it looks like we'll have to do the usual excessiv e hand-washing, garlic wearing, avoiding- crowded-places-kind-of-stuff!