When you call a person thick, it means that he or she (okay, he) has a hard time absorbing information through the dense brain tissue known as gray matter. Even among the rapidly increasing population of Neanderthals them’s fighting words. Among soups?  Not so much. More than any other food, people define a soup by […]

Ever felt like you’re just tapped out?  You’ve been working all weekend and you don’t have the energy to throw together a meal. And since times are tough, you can’t afford to eat out either, no matter how many coupons you may have. So… it’s leftovers again, which is kind of a harsh word when […]

At our house mushrooms are magical, not in a crazy Timothy Leary kind of way, but because of fairies. As any parent of daughters knows, mushroom circles are known as fairy or pixie rings and serve as portals to the supernatural world. European and American folklore is filled with stories of mortals witnessing fairies coming […]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how spring was coming.  The snow was melting, crocuses and snowdrops were blooming and the mercury was up above 50 for the first time in months. False alarm. Chicago will do that to you. Veteran Midwesterners are used to this meteorological bait and switch.  We Californians still […]

After nearly 13 years of marriage, I’ve learned there are times when I just need to keep my mouth shut.  Sadly I haven’t learned when those times are, so, to be on the safe side, I tend to hold my tongue almost always. Luckily, my wife is something of a talker, so there is no […]