Blog Archives

Steinway Beans

6/30/2015

Green beans are so ordinary, but dress them up with a classy piano, and they take on a whole new life. Music is for everyone!

I usually blanch my green beans, then sautee them with olive oil or butter and salt. This is getting boring. Do you have any suggestions? Please, keep it simple. I’m a low-maintenance cook.

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Artichokes

6/29/2015

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Well, after living in California for 20+ years, I decided to cook and eat one. I’ve only had them in dips, or just the hearts in salads. I followed this recipe.

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Walking Weekend in LA

6/27/2015

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Downtown Los Angeles is a glamorous, dirty, downtrodden, intriguing place. If you have a couple of days, you can stay there, eat there, have a lot of fun there, without ever getting in your car. Everything here is in walking distance, and you can explore the faded and possibly returning beauty of downtown Los Angeles. The architecture is stunning. Gentrification, always a tricky project, is slowly but surely making the neighborhood more walkable and liveable.

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Travel is a Privilege but I Don't Want to Be a "Privileged" Traveler

6/25/2015

My parents, while by no means rich, taught me to love traveling. My older sister and her husband moved to England, and my mother and I visited her there when I was six and again when I was nine. I saw Loch Ness, watched an Agatha Christie play in London, ate real fish and chips, and visited Shakespeare’s house. I bought a book of Wordsworth poems at Wordsworth’s house and camped in Scotland in a VW bus with a pop-up roof. Mom and I just accepted the fact that the English spell “color” as “colour” and say “tidy” instead of “spotless.” The people were lovely, and they made me feel lovely.

My father showed me a lot of the United States. We always traveled cheap, staying with relatives or in Motel 6, packing a “feed bag” full of snacks, and eating in cafes frequented by locals. My dad was a map genius and we often played a game while driving: I’d look at the Texas map and name two roads, and he could tell me in what city they intersected. Any roads. Genius. Even though my parents were divorced, they both valued travel and, together and apart, they shaped me into the movable person I am.

Old Vegetables

6/21/2015

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I love the way vegetables age, like roses that lose their petals. First they get wrinkled, but keep their color. Then the mold starts to grow, and the color fades. Pretty soon they compost themselves. I love that first stage the most, when they’re wrinkled but still useful. Like me.

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Middle-Aged Travel Tips

6/20/2015

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I don’t know about you, but I have a few needs now that I didn’t have before. The days of traveling with flip flops and a tote bag are over for me. (If you can still get by with that, carry on.) A few comforts from home help keep me from wearing out and getting travel fatigue. Nothing drastic, but these things make my trips a lot nicer.

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Greenville Part 3: In Light of the Charleston Shooting

6/19/2015

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When I took my son to visit the Museum and Library of Confederate History In Greenville, South Carolina, my intention was to show my gentle California kid that people still glorify a time in our past when it was legal and profitable to exploit and oppress people because of the color of their skin.

I had no idea that the subtle yet still active racism we saw that day would manifest a month later just a few miles away in Charleston with the killing of nine African American Christians holding a prayer meeting.

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Squash's Day Out

6/12/2015

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Squash is temporarily financially embarrassed and cannot afford to go on a vacation this year. Today, she decides to explore her home town in the effort to find the fun. Here is her day.

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Introvert Travel Tips

6/11/2015

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I’m a high-functioning introvert, so I seem like a normal person most of the time. People talk to me. Also, people tend to ask me for help in public. I don’t know why. Somebody even asked me for directions in Shanghai. Do I look like I’m a native? Once I got mixed up in Vienna and sent 30 Romanian tourists in the opposite direction from their bus. I never saw them again. Sorry. Anyway, what you don’t see is that while I might look fine, as a fully-qualified introvert, I need time alone to recharge. People wear introverts out, being alone energizes us. Mid-way through a day out, I’m usually longing to find the nearest bathroom and lock myself in a stall until tomorrow comes. Actually, I’ve tried that, but my legs fell asleep. Here are some things that usually work for me.

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Greenville Part 2: What to Do

6/4/2015

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Here are the specifics on my trip: eating, staying, packing. Greenville has an airport, but we flew direct from San Francisco to Atlanta and rented a car, a two- to three-hour very pleasant drive. If I lived closer, I’d take a long weekend there in the spring or fall. (I hear winter can freeze, and summer is humid.) This town is totally do-able, and renews my faith in small town America.

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