• authors,  books,  fiction,  literature,  madison,  recipes,  seasonal,  summer,  sweets

    A French Dessert and a Fresh Read

    For me, one of summer’s great joys is scarfing down mass quantities of berries and stone fruits. Another one of the season’s pleasures is sitting in a shaded spot, curled up with a good book. When the two converge? Serendipity. Last week, the fruit box delivered by my CSA farm was packed tight with eight pounds of sweet cherries. My husband, son, and I stuffed as many into our mouths as we could. Immediately. When we wiped the red juice from our faces, though, we still had quite a few cherries left. Enter, The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane, the delightful debut novel by Kelly Harms that I happened to be…

  • coffee,  family,  kids,  neuroses,  seasonal,  wisconsin

    The Real March Madness

    My husband says that waking up on the first day of the NCAA tournament is like Christmas morning for him. But I’m familiar with the real March madness, and basketball has nothing to do with it. The real March madness is the feeling you get when you watch the thermometer on your car dashboard drop from fourteen to eleven to five degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the first day of spring getting bitch-slapped by winter, year after year. It’s devouring gallons of coffee and carb-loading with baked goods because winter will never end and you’ll never need to wear a bathing suit again. It’s straitjacketing your toddler into his parka and boots…

  • coffee,  creativity,  desserts,  food,  local,  seasonal,  sweets

    Of Creativity and Cupcakes

    This fall, Edible Madison editor Jamie Lamonde contacted me to ask if I was interested in writing a feature on Bloom Bake Shop and its owner, Annemarie Spitznagle, for the winter issue. Bloom is a small-batch dessert bakery in Middleton, Wis. that uses local, seasonal, and organic ingredients.  Of course I wasted no time in saying, “OH MY GOD, YES!” I mean, who wouldn’t love to sample and write about cupcakes, whoopie pies, and to-die-for French press coffee?   The afternoon I spent at Bloom was about so much more than cupcakes, though. Annemarie and I talked about goals, determination, and finding the place where work and passion intersect. You can read the…

  • budget-friendly,  fashion,  seasonal,  style,  summer,  Uncategorized

    Summer Wardrobe Syndrome

    I have a recurring problem that pops up every year around this time. My husband has come to anticipate it. The sequence goes a little something like this: First, I stand inside my closet with my hands on my hips and declare that “I have no summer clothes.” Then I remember that they’ve been packed away in a huge Rubbermaid tub since September. I retrieve said tub and promptly throw half its contents into a bags destined for Goodwill, ReThreads (my favorite secondhand store), or an upcoming swap party. A garment gets tossed in a bag if it meets any of the following descriptions: (a) I can’t zip it or can only zip it…

  • fashion,  seasonal,  style,  vintage

    Looks of Ski Seasons Past

    Generally, I’m a summertime and sunshine kind of girl. But I have to admit there are a few things about winter that I like. Skiing is at the top of the list. I smile, or maybe grimace, when I think about some of my ski outfits from years past. As a pre-teen in the late eighties/early nineties, I loved my neon pink Columbia jacket that reversed to electric blue.  I even had neon pink goggles to match. Then there was my shiny purple Nevica jacket with its gimmicky avalanche alarm stitched into the shoulder–just what every fourteen-year-old ski bunny needs.  In high school I rocked a very aprés look, with an iridescent…

  • creativity,  decor,  green living,  handmade,  holiday,  seasonal,  vintage

    A very vintage holiday

    The holidays are a nostalgic time, so vintage touches fit right in with the spirit of the season. Some of my favorite tree trimmings are beaded bell ornaments made by my grandmother, and mod foil balls I picked out from a dime store when I was a kid. Nearly everyone in my dad’s family has a light-up ceramic tree like the one shown here. Starting in the late 50s, you could buy molds for them, and they were a popular craft item. Even the littlest member of the family will be in on the vintage theme this year. My 5-month-old son will be wearing the 1970s toy soldier romper shown…

  • art,  blogging,  books,  holiday,  seasonal,  writing

    Blogs to Books

    Yep, I’m that person. The person who buys books for everyone on her holiday list. What to get Dad who returns nearly everything I buy him? Books. What to get my nephew whose Japanamation jargon resembles a foreign language? Books. And what to get my niece who, like me when I was a kid, aspires to be a writer? Why, blank books, of course. One of my favorite blogs, Style Maniac, recently teamed up with independent bookseller Books & Books of Westhampton Beach, NY, to launch a month-long celebration of the art of giving and receiving books. The Blogs to Books challenge invited readers to choose one book and one recipient…

  • beverages,  booze,  bourbon,  food,  recipes,  seasonal

    Hot Toddy Time

    I hate to see summer end, but there are a few things I like about fall: football, tall boots, pumpkin bread, and hot drinks. My husband, son, and I recently visited an apple orchard near Lake Kegonsa just outside of Madison. Since our son is only 3 months old, we eschewed apple picking for simply buying a few bags of fresh McIntoshes and Empires and a half gallon of fresh cider. At our house, cider is the main ingredient in one of our favorite fall beverages. My husband modified his recipe for hot toddies from an episode of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee that he caught while flipping through the channels. I wonder…

  • booze,  food,  local,  nature,  seasonal

    Last Scenes of Summer

    As September settles in with sweater weather and the smell of wood smoke from chimneys, I thought I’d offer here on my blog one last glimpse of summer. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with a number of endeavors, including tending to a smiling but always hungry two-month-old and tackling another revision of my book. In all the busyness, summer has started to slip away, quietly, as it always does, like a guest leaving a party without saying good-bye so as not to interrupt the fun. A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to taste the spectrum of summer’s final, peak flavors at Milkweed, a private family farm…