It was baking day today, and so I decided to experiment with both ends of the gluten spectrum, which means from gluten-free (no gluten) to free gluten (added gluten at no extra charge to you). I started with the now tried-and-true ciabatta bread. This recipe is about as simple as it gets: 3.25 cups of …
California, there I went
It was a bright, warm morning in January when we crossed the border from Yuma, Arizona into California. As we descended the mountain range, the vast, open, lush landscape of the Imperial Valley laid out before us. I was on a cross-country trip with my friend Arthur. The year was 1976. We had traversed from …
Things we no longer buy at the grocery store
Surprisingly easy things to make at home instead of buying at the grocery store.
It’s a new day, a new administration, and a new recipe
It’s a blustery day here in Southern California. It’s also Inauguration Day for the United States. What better way to celebrate than to stay out of the wind and bake up a storm while glancing at the swearing in of our new president? On today’s menu: granola bars and saltine crackers. For the granola bars, …
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For the love of art: Meet this creative couple
Collaboration in the world of visual arts is a rarity. But allow me to introduce you to a couple that have created a perfect blend of their skills. And their collective output is consistently provocative, aesthetically enlightening, and just downright whimsical and entertaining. A frog for the garden. Water-based putty over wire mesh. Repurposed bolts, …
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Harvest time, planting time
It’s winter, officially, and that means time to harvest the citrus crops in the sunnier climes of the United States. We have a lemon tree and our first orange tree. We decided to pick the sweeter fruits early, to get a jump on the wildlife that, for some reason, seems entitled to take what they …
The road beckons
Two years ago today, we said good-bye to the Bay Area, the place we had called home for a long time. We set out on our World Tour, with a guitar, harmonica, microphone, laptop and two or three suitcases. In reality, this was the third leg of our tour. We had been to Asia (Hong …
One for the books
My coping mechanism for the past year has been to read a lot of ancient history. It’s a great way to keep current events in context. It’s debatable whether Caligula actually nominated his horse, Incitatus, to the Roman Senate, but many crazier things certainly happened. In truth, I don’t read as much as I listen …
Home-made ricotta is a snap
T'WAS A DARK AND STORMY day, the kind that requires something to be in the oven to ward off the dampness and chill. After whipping up a few batches of granola bars and bread, I began to think about what to do to keep the oven going. “How about lasagna for dinner?” I inquired. I …
Sherry & George 