“I made a Washington Post recipe for Carrot Bread. The flavor is excellent, but the center 2 inches was completely unbaked, even after 90 minutes in the oven (baking time was supposed to be 1 hour). My loaf pan was slightly larger than called for, but the batter filled it to about half an inch […]
Leslie Bridgers
Columnist
Leslie Bridgers is a columnist for the Portland Press Herald, writing about Maine culture, customs and the things we notice and wonder about in our everyday lives. Originally from Connecticut, Leslie came to Maine by way of Bowdoin College and never left. She joined the Portland Press Herald in 2011 as a reporter and spent seven years as the paper’s features editor, overseeing coverage of arts, entertainment and food.
Posted inFood
In many murder mysteries, gardens provide the plot twist
Marta McDowell’s ‘Gardening Can Be Murder’ looks at examples of where the hobby appears within this genre.
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Posted inUncategorized
Not your grandparents’ Chianti: The straw-wrapped wine goes high-end
This is not your grandfather’s Chianti. Forget the old straw-wrapped bottles, called fiaschi, that used to define Chianti. Forget the flasks of nameless local vino you enjoyed at a trattoria in Florence and remember nostalgically every time you hear Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” And forget “spaghetti wine.” I’m talking about an exciting […]
Posted inFood
McDonald’s mambo sauce is a tasty, if largely token, nod to Black America
Some publications claim the condiment was born at a rib joint on the South Side of Chicago. Others say carryouts in Washington, D.C., created it, a sort of spicy riff on sweet-and-sour sauce.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Jonathan Lethem’s love-hate relationship with Brooklyn
In “Brooklyn Crime Novel,” he blends fictional narrative and historical essay into a metanarrative that has crime as its main character.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ an admirable yet vexingly uneven film
The four most dreaded words for a film critic are, “What did you think?” And never have they been more problematic than when it comes to “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese’s eagerly anticipated adaptation of David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name. In that gripping, magisterial account, Grann chronicled in sickening detail […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Maine
It’s the time of year for horror and weird tales. Here are some favorites.
The October Country. The season of mists and melancholy. That time of year when graveyards yawn and things go bump in the night and we break out worn copies of Herbert Wise and Phyllis Fraser’s “Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural” or the collected ghost stories of Vernon Lee and M.R. James. In 2023, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Art review: Find color on a foliage drive to Monson Arts or in town at Moss Galleries
‘Northwoods: Absence and Presence features the paintings of Alan Bray and poems of Wesley McNair, while ‘How Do I Look’ takes on female body image.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is a Halloween ‘Christmas Story’
What if Edgar Allan Poe had written “Succession”? It’s not a question I’d have thought to ask, but Mike Flanagan – the creator of “The Haunting of Hill House,” “The Haunting of Bly Manor” and “Midnight Mass” – takes it up with grisly flair. “The Fall of the House of Usher,” his Netflix miniseries about […]
Posted inFood
Air Fryer Orange Tofu is a sweet, spicy homage to a food court staple
You can now count me among the home cooks who have gone from air fryer doubter to fan. After hearing my colleague Aaron Hutcherson sing the praises of his latest appliance acquisition – and tasting the fabulous Brussels sprouts he made in it – my resistance started to crumble. Surely, I had a professional obligation […]