President’s week, a.k.a. February vacation week, and news about the United States election process, causes me to remember a cake recipe that my grandmother passed down. She was invited to some kind of tea in the 1800s where this cake was served, and the recipe was given to each invitee. It’s engraved in gold on […]

After a holiday dedicated to chocolate it’s time to get back on track and have a few salads this week. I was talking with my brother, Tommy, and we discussed his vegetable garden, then he said something profound, “eat your vitamins!” We all should take that advice seriously. If we think about what we consume […]

Remember Fats Domino and “I Found My Thrill on Blueberry Hill”? He was crooning about “love’s sweet melody.” My thrill was found on Maine blueberry hills when summers found me with my mom raking wild blueberries as my grandmother watched. We took care of gramma every summer so this was a familiar routine. She was […]

As a child I remember winter meant lots of snow, but the blizzard of 1952 was the really big one! The clouds hung low in the sky; they seemed to be sitting just above the trees waiting. Blue jays and chickadees were filling their bellies preparing for a long cold spell. Shortly after noon a […]

So often the best recipes are those handed down from generation to generation. Today I am publishing my Mother’s go to recipe for cookies. Throughout the years, I have wondered if this was a recipe her Mother might have used. She lost her Mother, my namesake, when she was only 18 years old and it […]

“True gastronomy is making the most of what is available, however modest.” (Claudia Roden) Roden brings together recipes to create cultural stories of the people who live them. In “A Book of Middle Eastern Food” (1968) she writes dukkah is “a very personal and individual mixture”. Dukkah (pronounced DOO-kah) is an Egyptian spice blend. The […]

Our recipe this week is direct from my namesake country, France! On one of my visits to France I looked in a phone book and found the name, Claire Simoneau, that was very exciting to see it in print in Paris! I called the number but never reached my name twin. My heart belongs to San […]

When my mother lived in a walk-up apartment in New York City, she had neighbors from all over the world when women largely stayed home and took care of their homes. One advantage of this living arrangement was an opportunity for networking with different cultures. My mother friended a woman of Jewish descent who swore […]