Fall is perhaps my least favorite season of the year, although after each excessively Michigan winter, I tend to assign that honor to winter instead. But still. Fall. It means the coming of winter. It means the days are getting shorter and that I often drive home from work in the dark. It means rain, cold, wind. Sure, the changing colors are pretty, but once the leaves hit the ground, the smell of rotting permeates.  I wonder now how I ever used to find enjoyment in throwing my body into big, soggy piles of them.

Fall has two of my least favorite holidays (though in my mind only one actually counts as a holiday): Halloween and Sweetest Day. I blogged last week about Halloween costumes, but the truth is, I like planning Halloween costumes more than I like wearing them. The whole dressing up thing feels a bit silly to me, a bit juvenile. And let’s be honest: Sweetest Day is one of the stupidest things created by America. I remember my freshman year of college when my then-boyfriend asked me what I wanted for Sweetest Day and I said nothing, told him it was nothing but a money-making Hallmark holiday. He looked at me for a moment then finally asked, “Is that girl-speak for ‘get me something or you die’?” I hate the idea that, as women, we’re seen to be that fickle, that we’re expected to want (need?) things things things to show affection. If it weren’t for Thanksgiving, fall would have nothing of interest for me when it came to celebrations. But seriously, who doesn’t love a holiday that is, in its modern incarnation, about eating? Read more »

I’m having a party on June 18^th at 6 pm and you are invited.

This isn’t just any kind of party, I will host a gathering at my house, but at the same time, all around the world, other people will have the same party—on the same theme. What’s our theme you ask? I’ll tell you, we’re CONNECTING THROUGH FOOD, one of my favorite ways of connecting.

We’re also celebrating the release of Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World (a Three River Press original). Forty-one authors, of whom I am one, tell their stories of adventuring around the world. An additional and very tasty bonus is the thirty-three accompanying recipes. Curried carrot soup anyone? Charred sugar-crusted Salmon? Ginger-cumin roasted chicken? Butternut squash salad from the Seychelles? (Say that three times fast!) Swedish Kladdkaka? If you guessed that the last one is connected to my contribution to the book, you guessed right.  Read more »