Chef Nick Martin shows Sam how it’s done during our class at Lucy Cooks, a school where every day students can learn how to cook, bake and generally find their way around a kitchen. Martin’s cooked with the best, I asked him about some of the famous chefs like Gordon […]
Last night we watched an evening of British telly. One program was called ‘Eggheads’ and pitted a panel of gameshow winners against a weekly collection of challengers. Each week another 1000 pounds are added to the prize money….there was already 14,000 in the kitty, showing that challengers have had a […]
Johan Hoving in front of Coniston’s former copper mill, atop a hill we climbed on mountain bikes. This part of England is stunning, with rolling hills, distant snowy mountains, and cute villages. The roads are narrow and more than once we stopped and watched in awe as a giant coach […]
Today we did the Press trip Triathlon, starting out with a hike up a small mountain, then boarding canoes and paddling across Coniston Lake, and finally riding mountain bikes through the woods and up a steep hill. We did all of this as intermittent showers drenched us, and after tipping […]
Rain streaked the windows of our Airbus A330, rain pattered down, a sign of the weather on the ground in Manchester England where we landed this morning. We spent a fair amount of time in the non-EU citizens line where a man with a ponytail was being quizzed by immigration […]
I’m off. Not ready, nervous about what I’m forgetting, but I’m off. I head to Boston to pick up my traveling companion, Samuel Abbott Hartshorne, who will join me this week for a trip to the North of England. As much as I have traveled, I was embarrassed to say […]
Wow! What a swell party! My fiftieth bash turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. Gathered were, as my pal Joe said, my A list, the people who mean the most to me. At seven o’clock as people began to arrive, suddenly the power went […]
My cell jangled and woke me at 6:15 am. It was Maggy with a question about our catering order for this morning. The cafe is making sandwich platters for a group of 55 people who are meeting in Greenfield to discuss the latest in the maple syrup business. We are […]
There is now a house for sale, at 9 Mountain Rd. After nearly 20 years, my little pad is up for sale. I want to move to a new and bigger house, a little bit out in the country but still in Deerfield. It’s like a daisy chain…these homeowners want […]
One thing I never get tired of is free publicity. When Cindy sent me the notice in the Republican looking for people who have had experience with home heating oil contracts, of course I jumped in and sent the reporter, Stan Freeman, a link to this blog. I had ragged […]
Today I am working in the cafe on my birthday. It seemed appropriate, and since I couldn’t get anyone else to cover, I dove right in. I am thinking more about the post the other day, the one about what I am thankful for now that I’ve reached this milestone […]
Seaweed is cultivated and sold as a major cash crop in Indonesia, I learned tonight. That’s because certain types of seaweed are dried, ground up, and gives up a substance called carageenan, a common ingredient used to thicken many food products. There has been tumult in the seaweed market recently, […]