The Bloom

I know, I know… it’s fall and the traditional end of iced coffee season. But not in my world. On Planet Maddie, there’s no day that can’t be made infinitely better by a fat frosty cup of caffeinated glory and a straw, and calendar be damned, you will take that cup from me when you pry it from my equally frigid dead hands. My only problem? Most cafes quit making the stuff this time of year, which leaves us diehards out on the cold when it comes to grabbing a cup on a whim. So we do what anybody with...

Anybody who knows me knows I firmly believe that coffee is as essential to life as we know it as air, water, and the latest Elena Ferrante novel. It’s what my world calls a key ingredient.  But why isn’t coffee ever an actual ingredient? You know, as in something you cook with instead of just drink, happy though those occasions always are? I was wondering about this out loud with a friend of mine who’s sort of a chef and a bit of a foodie, and she set me straight—coffee can be used in the kitchen and not just in...

I don’t have a lot of nightmares, but when I do, they’re always strange and disturbing in a way that nothing else in life ever is, a bad acid trip crossed with a Stephen King story and wrapped in fat blanket of seriously freaky ugly. I had one last night. Nothing major. Just a bad dream that jolted me awake in the dark. And I lay there thinking: what’s the up with these things? If dreams are a way for our subconscious to process information and make connections we can’t see consciously, what are nightmares? Do they have a role...

We don’t get much in the way of fall where I hang my own board, which is okay because it means we also don’t get much in the way of winter. But I still envy the cozy vibe that crisp days and chilly nights bring in other places. So I make soup. No, I don’t have a fire to curl up with while I sip it, but the comfort of a steaming bowl on what passes for a chilly evening in these parts is a rite of seasonal passage that, for me anyway, offers a taste of a different place...