At dinner tonight, my son-in-law asked how I know a recipe is a keeper. "Even when it is," my daughter told him, "that doesn't mean we'll ever see it again." That's what life is like when your mother loves to try new recipes. However, by family vote, we ate an old favorite tonight: homemade Snickers. The whole project was made more interesting with little [...]
While reading one of those long books, I decided to try my hand at a copycat Chick Fil-A Sandwich recipe. A discriminating palate at our house declared that it had that same indefinable something you can taste at your local Chick Fil-A. But can you guess what the two surprise ingredients are? Check out the recipe here. Also, we believe this recipe [...]
Darn you, Costco! You put all sorts of tempting new candy in your aisles. I try one. I'm addicted after one bite. And the next fourteen times I shop your candy aisle, the addictive candy isn't there. I'm talking chocolate bark. But -- it shouldn't be that hard to make, right? Right. Here's the version I tried this week. We need to [...]
How to get through a book that's taking a little longer than normal? With Choc Mint Fudge! It's not quite the same as reading and eating bon-bons. But you don't see me complaining, do you? You can find the recipe here.
Tonight, you get two desserts, to make up for getting no book. I'm reading a long one, already been at it for two weeks and it's going to take me another to finish. Meanwhile, I'm visiting a household where nobody is on a special diet, where everybody goes bug-eyed for sugar-y treats. We tried: Slutty Brownies. Start with some chocolate chip cookie dough. [...]
I once walked up to one of my favorite ladies and asked her how she was. “Can’t complain,” she replied. Why not? Complaining is fun. Eric Wiener complains in a most entertaining way in his book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places on Earth. How did Wiener know where the happy was? Well, people do studies on this. And some countries have ministries [...]
Tom Wolfe is my writer hero. And he’s been busy lately, writing The Kingdom of Speech. Our top evolutionists and linguists recently admitted that, despite what they’ve been teaching for years about how man, the only “animal” that can speak, developed the power of language, they really can’t find any evidence for their theories. Wolfe, stumbling upon this admission, couldn’t help himself. He sat down [...]
Two lost souls meet in an apartment stairwell. One of them is a recovering heroin addict. He comes home every evening from London’s Covent Garden, where he plays his guitar — “busking” -- and hopes the passing commuters and tourists dropped a few coins in his guitar case. The other is a tabby cat with bald patches. If you’ve got a weakness for cats, or just [...]
I like to cook double of everything when my family gathers for Christmas. I resisted the urge this year and, boy, am I glad, because everyone is gone now and we still struggle to finish up goodies like this tasty White Chocolate Party Mix. This week’s book is even less nutritious than the candy-coated stuff. Being busy with guests, I couldn’t get to the library. [...]
At Benjamin Nugent's 13th birthday party, he invited all the friends with whom he had bonded over sci-fi, Dungeons & Dragons, and computers. They sang the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme as the cake appeared, and told each other nerdy jokes.What must his parents have thought? Perhaps they were simply glad that he had friends. But still . . ."Do you tell him to ditch [...]
