A Fairy’s Garden
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. Do you believe in fairies? If you believe, clap your hands! J.M. Barrie My daughter and I spend a lot of time in the garden. Tending the veggies, clipping the rose bushes, weeding, not mowing the so called lawn,

The Great Pumpkin Cake
"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" One of the great pleasures of having a child is getting to celebrate holidays in a particularly playful manner.  Okay, confession. I had my daughter at age 36, and I have to confess to never going to a pumpkin patch or carving a pumpkin until very recently. Sad, but true. Last year I carved my first pumpkin and loved it so mu

Paris and the Golden Apple
Rubens, "The Judgment of Paris," 1636. National Gallery, London. A love letter, in part,  from Paris to Helen: The beauty and vigour of my spirit, though I might have seemed to have been low-born, were signs of my secret nobility. There’s a place in the midst of the valleys of wooded Ida, solitary, crowded with pines and holm-oaks, where placid sheep, and she-goats

The Last Gasp of Summer
A few years ago I was in Paris in July. I was loathe to go but business called. Business was completed in a few days, and then my holiday began. After a week of trying to do all the things I normally like to do, but couldn’t because of all the crowds, I hopped on the TGV for Lyon.  I had never been to Lyon but always wanted to. After all, Lyon is the home of the historic French textile industry and the food, well, the food. I loved Lyon. From my hotel on the River Saone, I coul

Rescuing a Pear in a Pickle
A History: Monday, August 24, 2009 Vin de Noix gets bottled. I fill two large bottles but still have enough to fill a third bottle, halfway. Thursday, August 27, 2009 My friend Robin drops off a bag of Comice pears. Pear butter? No. Pear tart? No. Pear chutney? No. Hmmm, didn’t the Old Foodie post something about pickled pears… Yes, she did!