I wore him out. Isn’t it usually the other way around?
Pie
MorePie
Fourth of July
Banjo Man
Glen the Banjo Man
sad
One of my dearest and most beloved friends here in Rhode Island lost her son this weekend. It was sudden and tragic and cruel, in so many ways.
If you believe in prayer, would you say one for her?
Thank you.
Love,
More Pie
Posted in friends, rhode island
1 Comment
roasted mushroom soup…so good…
I have to share this Roasted Mushroom Soup recipe with you. I multiplied the ingredients by 1 1/2, and pureed about 80% of the bean/broth mixture in the blender instead of the smaller amount mentioned in the recipe.
It was so good.
So good.
It’s a Polar Vortex kind of soup, you know? To warm your insides long enough to pretend you still like winter?
For some reason I can’t remember, I’d bought a lot of mushrooms. Banjo Man wanted to know what I’d planned to do with them, because he’d bought some too, meaning they must have been on sale somewhere. Of course I couldn’t remember why I’d wanted so many mushrooms. That brain gap sent me to search on Pinterest for a mushroom soup recipe and I quickly found this one. The ingredients are simple: beans, vegetable broth, onions, garlic, mushrooms…and fresh sage leaves.
I splurged on the sage leaves, and the flavor was outrageous.
Thanks to the “shewearsmanyhats” blog for the fabulous soup.
Posted in food
3 Comments
writer day
Sharon
Pat
Every other month, these fellow writers and I get together to talk about writing, food, writing, chocolate, writing, books, writing, families, writing, diets, writing…well, you get the idea.
There is never a silent moment.
Today is one of those days. I’m up very early, getting ready to head north to the Big City.
I am in the midst of deciding whether or not to write another book. My editor would like another.
I have been plotting every day, rather reluctantly and without inspiration.
But I have a great title.
That’s something, right?
It’s a start, I tell myself. The writers will tell me if the rest of my ideas make sense. They will add or subtract, encourage and commiserate. We will drink coffee and eat pizza and brownies and we will come up with many, many ideas for our future books.
I go back and forth about retiring from this writing business, wondering if I am being lazy or if I simply –and justifiably–have a strong sense of self-preservation.
As many of you know, the previous three books took their toll. And while it is easy for me to spout promises of “balance” in the future, the truth is that writing is an “all or nothing” business, at least for me. But I need to keep working on balance. Obviously.
Posted in friends, personal female whining, writing
5 Comments
won’t miss these
According to an article in National Geographic I read this morning (you can click here for the scientific details), the polar vortex may have destroyed 95% of the stink bug population.
Should we share a moment of silence or do a happy dance around the room? Since–thanks to my friend the Polar Vortex–it is 8 degrees out this morning, I will get the blood moving with some leaps around my office after I post this to the blog.
In memory of stink bugs everywhere, I’m reposting my recipe for Stink Bug Chicken.
And here’s a song for frozen stink bugs everywhere:
Posted in a more pie opinion, food, rhode island
1 Comment
running away
Eloisa James and Nina Sovich were on a panel at the Big Book Getaway, a panel titled “Travel and Culture”. But it may as well have been titled “Running Away and Writing About It”.
These books are waiting for me at the library. I cannot wait to read them!
Nina ran away from her new life in Paris to West Africa, in To the Moon and Timbuktu
And Eloisa ran to Paris, to live with her family for a year. The result? Paris in Love
Let me know if you’ve read either one of these? Or if you’d like to?
Posted in books & music, travel
3 Comments
meeting dr. ruth!!!
I’m still grinning from ear to ear.
More Pie and Dr. Ruth
Banjo Man and I attended the 2nd Annual Big Book Getaway Saturday, at the Mohegan Sun convention center. Sponsored by the Mark Twain House & Museum, the event presented panels of “more than 80 best-selling and award-winning authors” for an entire day of talking about books.
Heaven.
I’m surprised there weren’t thousands of people there. If I belonged to a book club I would have gathered the club together for an overnight jaunt or a one-day field trip to hear favorite authors speak, buy new books, get autographs and learn about writers and books I hadn’t known before.
I was lucky enough to have been asked by my publisher to participate on the romance panel, which meant meeting writers and readers in a relaxed and friendly setting.
Dr. Ruth started off the day on the Main Stage. She told about being an only child in a loving family in Germany, then sent–at the age of ten–to Switzerland with 300 other children escaping Nazi Germany. She never saw her family again and stayed in Switzerland until she was sixteen. She went to Israel and was trained as a sniper. A sniper!!! I almost fell off my chair at that revelation.
Dr. Ruth at age 85 (she turns 86 on June 4, the same day her next book is released) is a lively, outspoken, brilliant, funny ball of energy.
I’d forgotten my camera, so during lunch in a pub Banjo Man and I tried to figure out how to take photos with our cell phones. We took numerous pictures of ourselves while waiting for the fish ‘n chips (mine) and the Dublin stew (his) to arrive. Banjo Man was able to take a picture. I never did.
But we decided we were ready just in case we were ever close enough to Dr. Ruth to get a photo.
I managed to corner her after the last event of the day–a speech by Debbie Macomber—and get a quick picture. Cornering people for a photo is something that usually makes me uncomfortable, but I decided to hell with it. I wanted my picture with Dr. Ruth.
Want to see it again?
Too bad you can’t my see my boots in this picture. I wore my fanciest pair of cowboy boots…just because.
Posted in books & music, rhode island, writing
4 Comments
oh brother where art thou?
Sarge has left Alaska and is on his way to Texas to visit his brothers. It’s been three years since the boys have been together and Sarge has been to Afghanistan, among other places in the world. We all hope the very long drive is uneventful and he arrives in Austin with energy to two-step with the ladies, share his funny stories and wrestle with his nephew.
1993 New Hampshire vacation
The brothers frown at the photographer, who is also their mother.
The three of them are so different from each other in so many ways, but when they’re together they laugh. They laugh a lot.
See you soon, Sarge.
Posted in family
5 Comments
my new garbage invention
When Banjo Man was away for five days I realized this meant I would have to take out the garbage myself.
This was not a happy realization.
And because we’d had snow and more snow and even more snow, and were expecting snow and sleet and rain and ice and more and more and more snow, I decided I would not be braving the back steps or the hill on the side of the house in order to deal with garbage.
So I shoveled and scraped and trudged through the snow and came up with this solution.
What’s behind the curtain???
I just open the slider, lean out to remove the lid and drop the bags inside. I don’t even have to put boots on!
I wish everything was this simple.
Banjo Man is speechless.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Posted in rhode island
3 Comments
