by paige on September 28, 2009
AS A WAY TO BRING the happiness back into our family’s world of pie, I suggested that my mother and I do a joint project: enter a local pie-baking contest. I’m competitive when it comes to board games, but not so much to contests with judges and juries; I kind of assumed she’d beat me, and the world of pie would be returned to its axis. Best-laid plans… [click to continue…]
by paige on August 18, 2009
"Mom! These are DEFINITELY POTATOES."
ARE WE ADDLED YET? Has the heat cooked your brain, softened your resolve, wilted your garden? Why yes, I say, to all three, which is perhaps why, when the Rock and I were washing our slender haul of assorted love apples from the garden yesterday, I didn’t bother to correct her when she insisted the tomatoes were potatoes and ate more carrots than she washed. It’s too hot to argue. It’s too hot to do much of anything, which is why I say: Make soup. (Does this seem proof positive that I’m not thinking clearly? No, no, I promise, this is good advice–read on.) [click to continue…]
by paige on August 11, 2009
Joe Forte's artwork just about sums me up.
A FEW DAYS BACK, my (internet/have never met her in person, yet feel like she’s a part of my dysfunctional family) friend, lovely Marilyn of Simmer Till Done, asked me to chime in with a guest post on her blog. The assignment was simple: food & memory. I pinged her back (this whole convo, of course, was over Twitter) and said I’d LOVE to be a part of her blog (it rocks) but that my initial, stream-of-consciousness response to the assignment was pretty dark. “I’m cool with dark,” was her reply (or something like that) and so I was off to the memory races. [click to continue…]
by paige on August 4, 2009
MY INTENTIONS WERE pure, I swear. My mother is one of the two best pie makers I have ever known. Ruth Reichl is the other one, so Mom is in plenty fancy foodie company. (I’m not picking favorites here. That would be stupid, and probably reduce the amount of world’s-two-best-pies in my future.) Since Ruth was in Brazil, and therefore not available for stalking for pie tips (and I suspect she’s more likely to put them on her own site, anyway) I turned to Mom. “I have a great idea!” I began. She looked suspicious. My “great ideas” and “suggestions” can be as annoying to her as hers are to me. “I want to film you making pie, and put it up on The Sister Project this week!” Her face seemed to pale, and the corners of her mouth plummeted. [click to continue…]
by paige on July 28, 2009
KIDS FIGHT, RIGHT? This is not news. Not to those of you who grew up with siblings, anyway. As an only child, I think I believed that incessant sibling squabbling was like one of those subjects exaggerated by the media, say, anyone’s interest in the Brangelina brood: something real, to be sure, but perhaps not quite as culturally pervasive as the folks at Us magazine would like us all to believe. [click to continue…]