Birthdays were a big deal when we were young. We got dressed up and mom and dad piled my brother, sister and I into the Impala for the ride into the city to a fancy restaurant. It was usually an old-line establishment with white linen napkins, more glasses than there were liquids and a confusing […]
Early Lessons in Restaurant Etiquette Read More »
It’s the part of cooking that no one ever talks about. It’s a topic rarely covered on the countless food shows hosted by famous chefs. Prepping food for a recipe is not glamorous and does not sell ads. Even so, this mundane, time-consuming task simply must be done. There are a few ways I like
How to Entertain (Yourself) During Food Prep Read More »
Early in my career, I worked too much and slept too little while covering crime, floods and the daily circus of news. I needed a break from urban reality and the adrenaline rush. I needed a reboot. I reasoned a visual study would calm me mentally and spiritually and perhaps help me understand what was
Coming Full Circle Read More »
I am a Mardi Gras veteran. A childlike Christmas morning feeling of anticipation resonates in me the night before Fat Tuesday. It’s congenital, born with the first butt tap when I was introduced to this world at Baptist Hospital on Napoleon Avenue, just a few days into the Lenten season. That seed for carnival excitement
Parading Down Memory Lane Read More »
There’s a famous art installation in Amarillo, Texas called the Cadillac Ranch, where a line of classic wing-tipped, fin-tailed Cadillacs are half-buried, nose first in the stark dirt. I’ve always loved the striking visual—decadent post-WWII luxury roadsters arranged in a line of 10, as if they had hit the earth from outer space doing well
Meatloaf: A Revisionist History Read More »
THERE WERE TIMES in my youth I thought Santa lived with my grandmother. I grew up across the street from my maternal grandparents. It was on a day I was sick at home from school, busy building a tent of sheets over a collection of chairs in the living room, when a sixth sense gave me pause. Just as
Believing in the Holiday Spirit Read More »
