Debi Simons 
I’ve referenced Ann Hodgman many times in this blog and the hospitality one also, and I’ve even listed the three cookbooks above. But I’ve never actually done a post on her and her books, and I said I would do that at some point when I mentioned her in my post on Sue Klebold’s book. Her Amazon page says that she’s the author of more than 40 children’s books, the above three cookbooks, and several humorous books. I think she should be much, much better known than she is.
To the left is a shot of the thank-you cards that I received on Tuesday evening at the annual dinner/meeting of the Cherry Creek Chorale. I’d been putting away the leftovers and so sat in the back as the meeting started. There seemed to be a lot of cards being passed around, but I didn’t think much of it since we have one member in the hospital and a couple others who are leaving. To be honest I didn’t think about it all that much.
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton, originally published in 2011 in hardback by Random House, now available in several formats. 2012 paper edition includes a “Reader’s Guide” that gives updates on what has happened in Hamilton’s life since the original publication. Available through Amazon and other outlets. She has also written a cookbook, Prune, with the recipes she serves in her restaurant of the same name. (“Prune” was her nickname as a child. She chose that name for her restaurant as a nod to her deep love for the food she grew up eating. Ho-kay, Gabrielle!
I wrote yesterday about Perri Klass’s books, one of which was written with her mother, and how I totally understood her struggles to get her mother to accept any kind of gift or help. There’s a long section in Every Mother Is a Daughter about Perri’s project of knitting her mother a beautiful vest with hand-dyed wool and handmade buttons. She has to plot and contrive to get Sheila to pick out the yarn, valiantly trying to keep her mother from seeing how expensive it is. Her mother keeps saying, “Oh, don’t go to any trouble. Don’t spend too much.”
It’s a ritual for me as the weather warms up to wander around the yard peering hopefully at my perennials, looking for the first buds. Did they make it through the winter? I still have one plant I’m monitoring, telling myself that I can see some buds forming, but it’s probably self-delusion.
Do you see life as good and worthwhile in itself, or only when you’re fully occupied and happy? I was reminded recently of a conversation embodying that question between two of my favorite fictional characters.
We are down in North Carolina for Thanksgiving visiting our wonderful relatives with whom we used to spend every Thanksgiving and Labor Day weekend. Dear Uncle Gordie had called Gideon while he was in the hospital this summer and urged him to visit. So we decided to come for this week. I know I said that Gideon had signed on to a picture a week while his hair was re-growing, but his patience is pretty limited for this type of thing. So this isn’t a very good picture, as it’s kind of distorted, BUT YOU CAN SEE HAIR!!! He’s starting to look more like a Marine and less like a chemo patient. The braces will still be in place for a few more weeks. But it’s probably just as well that he kept them for this trip, as we’ve done a TON of walking plus getting in and out of the plane and also a very small rental car. Gideon’s back was bothering him a little bit, not from any cancer problems but just from doing much more activity than he’s used to.
People have been so kind! We had three get-togethers while in Virginia and DC, with our friends making great efforts to include unexpected guests in the outings. I’m writing this while digesting dinner. And what a dinner it was. Just in the sweet potato/squash department we had three entries. I made my dressing recipe and it was a great success, although the sausage I used was pretty spicy. Head on over to the entertaining section and see what the finished product looked like.
We have two more days here and then we’ll be back in DC for another wonderful Sunday morning service at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Unless something drastic happens, I probably won’t post during the trip.