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Since discovering the work of Kelly Cline, I have been changing over all the pages of Gastronomic Meditations to incorporate her food shots. Her sense of aesthetics is utterly in tune with my own, and her photos lend a complementary air of ethereal beauty to words full of passion for cuisine. In fact, Kelly’s photo of apples and honey inspired the entire redesign of the site from its last incarnation, and to this muse of mine I am most grateful. :) Invariably, when I receive feedback about Gastronomic Meditations, it includes the question, “Where did you get your photography?? I’m…

Egads, it’s that time again. Time to start preparing The Menu. The Sister and I must soon formulate our strategy, for we will undoubtedly have too many recipes on the wish list, and we’ll have to pare it down to human proportions. Then the Niece will get involved with her own opinions, which we’ll ignore as soon as she leaves the room. We’ve already plied Mom into retirement with a bottle of Bailey’s and a cozy blanket, so all bases are firmly covered. Besides, two Chiefs are more than enough at this pow-wow. Since we have now mastered the art…

At long last, my favorite season is here. No more humidity, no more air conditioning. Now it is time to bake. To kick off the harvest season, I returned to the preschool for another session with my favorite little chefs. We made Apple Duff, which is a peeled, cored apple stuffed with raisins and brown sugar, then wrapped in puff pastry. I gave them each a cup of the raisin/sugar mix with which to stuff their apples, then set about helping each of them to wrap it all in the dough. By the time I got halfway around the table,…

I met a new friend in Vancouver, one who I hope will be in my life for a long time to come. His name is Michael Newberry, and he is an internationally renowned artist whose work lights my soul on fire. The vividness of the hues in his paintings is like no other I’ve seen, and his canvases radiate with luminosity. In the end, I discovered that his paintings are merely a reflection of his soul. Not surprisingly, Michael and I bonded over cuisine. The first night of the conference he said to me, “Aren’t you the gourmet?” Our conversation…

I’ve enjoyed spending the last few months in the bucolic tranquility of the Hudson Valley, and am glad I took the time to do so. However, I’ve discovered that a solitary work existence is not my ideal. As someone who has always thrived on a bit of chaos, I’m finding that the lack of it can be debilitating. I’m not sure what this says about me, nor am I sure I want to. I tend to be somewhat fidgety by nature, so it soothed my soul to return to a kitchen environment where there was controlled chaos all around me….