My Garden at Two Months
Two months is all it took for my garden to go from seed to full bloom. What I expected to be a gradual process, one that would require a test of patience (a quality I’ve been known to lack), turned out to be more instantaneous. Almost freakishly so. I was especially blown away by the […]
Experiment in Dating: Part Two
It’s a weird and heart-wrenching business, this online dating thing. And I’m not comfortable going into much more detail about it, but since I’ve whetted your appetites and you all seem so damn curious now, I’ll feed your ravenous, voyeuristic curiosity a little more. But only a little. And then I will have to stop. […]
Experiment in Dating: Day One
After crying all day Saturday over Marcus and what would have been – SHOULD have been – his 45th birthday this past weekend, I decided it’s time. It’s time to stop wallowing in the past and bravely, boldly embrace the future. What I’m trying to say is two years after Marcus’ passing, it’s time to […]
Guest Blogger: Jack Iken
Hi. My name is Jack Iken. I’m seven years old. I’m half Jack Russell terrier, half Yorkshire terrier. I like playing stick, I like belly rubs, and I really like grilled meat, especially filet mignon. I’m blogging for my mom today because she doesn’t feel good. She was going to take the weekend off and […]
You can Also Find Me on Facebook
Just a reminder — especially to those of you who are waiting impatiently for me to update my blog (sorry, it’s been hard to write when I am baking every day for the Pitchfork Pie Stand) — I have a “business” page on Facebook, The World Needs More Pie. If you check in over there […]
Gothic House Garden
Seeds planted, May 18 I am almost 50 years old and I have never planted a garden. Until now. I must feel in my bones that I will be staying put in Iowa for a while because I didn’t hesitate to make the investment – not only the financial one, but the psychological one. As […]
Wayward Reptiles in the American Gothic House
The new American Gothic pose? Bob, Don, the Hoe and the Snake I was on the phone last night with a reporter from ABC News in San Francisco, Wayne Freedman. A friend of mine works at the TV station and when she heard Wayne was looking for stories about life in rural America, she told […]
Pitchfork Pie Stand — Opening May 20
Hello pie fans. You may have read the article in the May/June issue of Midwest Living touting my Pitchfork Pie Stand. Well, good news. The pie stand is finally opening for the season on Friday, May 20. So far summer hours will include Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays coinciding with the American Gothic House Center hours, […]
Resurfacing…in Los Angeles
No sooner did I finish the first draft of my manuscript for MAKING PIECE, I looked up from my laptop and realized three months had passed. Spring had arrived. The snow had melted, buds were popping out on the trees, the grass had turned vibrant green and my nice neighbor Don Eakins had come over […]
My Apple Pie Shortcuts, As Seen on Better TV
One snowy January day a television crew from BETTER TV showed up at the American Gothic House and wanted to film me making pie. Since I love making pie — even better, teaching others how to make it — I said, “Sure.” I showed them a few of my shortcuts, the ones I learned from […]