Sally’s Blog
Brownies
Be my Valentine? Here’s a good recipe for you—but first its story. Both are close to my heart. It was 1967, first semester of my senior year at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston; in the spring I would give my senior recital, the culmination of four...
Of Trees and Crows
A moody November afternoon and I’m at a local shopping center where I usually go to use the ATM, market, or post office, or meet up with friends at Starbucks. But today the primary feature is the sycamore trees—and what’s flying around in them. I’ve been studying and...
Tannenbaum
Three weeks ago, we chose you, carried you home, installed you in our living room, and decorated you. Who knows how long you graced the woods of Oregon before you were cut and stacked among other fragrant trees and roared southward in a dark truck? On this January...
Our Lady of the Marriott
A San Francisco Magnificat Mid-December in a room on the ninth floor of the Marriott, I sit reading the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel in a Gideon Bible. Like Mary a traveler far from home though I’m not “great with child.” I’m full of questions, too -- some...
The Shazam Factor
Shazam! An exclamation point word, a cymbal crash of a word, “Shazam” was created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, as an acronym naming the superpowers which Billy Batson—aka Captain Marvel—possessed. S, for the wisdom of Solomon; H, the strength...
The Fruitcake Diary
October 4 How many times do I start a Monday—start any week—by making fruitcake? Also, how many times have I ever made fruitcake so early in the year? (I can count on one thumb). However, this year I am to supply Edible San Diego with my fruitcake recipe, along with a...
Foot Path
I am walking through a green tunnel, a swath cut through trees, vines, and shrubs with a sandy, two-lane road at its base. Immersed, I feel carried forward; also, it is easy to imagine the forest would reclaiming its territory almost overnight. Somehow the sky seems...
Ripe
“What’s your favorite fruit?” Without needing to think, I answer, “Peaches. “ But peaches are a sometime thing. Some years good, others frustrating. So when they are good, I rejoice all over again. Sometimes peaches ripen almost before I’m ready. Then I make my...