Family

I Was a Liberal Arts Major

In Baking, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Miscellany on 9 April 2010 with no comments

Having cleaned the kitchen yes­ter­day, I decided to mess it up again with a batch of 36 hour choco­late chip cook­ies. I made them right before I picked up my son from school at 3:00.
When my hus­band asked me what our Friday night plans were, I replied, “Cookies! I made a batch of those 36 hour […]

Speaking in Tongues: Toward Salvation

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 22 December 2009 with 4 comments

My mother was a deeply reli­gious woman. She was what most peo­ple would call a fun­da­men­tal­ist Christian. She believed in God, the Father Almighty, cre­ator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son, our Lord.
And how.
But she espe­cially believed in Hell, and she even more espe­cially believed that my brother and I were […]

The Egypt Game: Descent into Heathenry

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 9 December 2009 with no comments

When I was in ele­men­tary school, I read a won­der­ful novel called The Egypt Game. It was about five chil­dren who decided to recre­ate ancient Egypt on a piece of aban­doned prop­erty, and how the gods of the game inte­grated them­selves into the children’s every­day lives in spooky and enter­tain­ing ways.
I fell in love with the […]

The Left Hand of the Father: Kindergarten

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 30 November 2009 with 2 comments

Most adults were amused and bewil­dered by my pre­co­cious ways at only four years old, but by September 1st, 1981, my mother had enough of my con­stant ques­tions and demands for expla­na­tions and decided it was high time I went to kinder­garten so she could have a break. Trouble was, most schools required that children […]

Thanksgiving 2009

In Culture, Family, Holidays & Traditions on 27 November 2009 with no comments

Thanksgiving.
I com­plain every year about Thanksgiving, because I grew up cel­e­brat­ing the hol­i­day with extended fam­ily: sib­lings, aunts, cousins, friends, and tables of food. But ever since I left home, Thanksgiving has just been me and my hus­band, and then as our kids came along, our kids.
That’s just four peo­ple. When you grew up cel­e­brat­ing with […]

Wine: It’s What’s For Dinner

In Family, Holidays & Traditions on 22 November 2009 with no comments

As you can see, my Thanksgiving shop­ping is done. Six bot­tles of wine for two peo­ple. It ought to be a good hol­i­day.
And, okay, yes, that’s a bot­tle of Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice hid­ing in the back, there. My mom used to buy sparkling juice for me and my brother when we were lit­tle. She […]

Donuts Are Delicious

In Baking, Family, Miscellany on 15 November 2009 with no comments

The best place to get donuts in Austin is Mrs. Johnson’s bak­ery. They keep weird hours, appeal­ing, osten­si­bly, to the 420 crowd, but the donuts are soft and fluffy and not too sweet. Good tex­ture, good taste, and they always give you a nice, hot glazed to eat in your car along with the rest […]

Epilogue to a Rainy Day

In Baking, Family on 9 November 2009 with no comments

Rainy days demand good food. My idea of good food is home­made bread and a deli­cious soup. Yesterday we pigged out on grilled cheese sand­wiches made with home­made bread, and home­made tomato soup with mozzerella and basil.
We were some happy sons of guns up in this house.
This is my bread recipe.
This ain’t a food blog, so yo […]

I’m Scary. And Bored of You.

In Family, Halloween, Miscellany on 2 November 2009 with no comments

Karinna, age 11, the offi­cial emo haunt of our fam­ily grave­yard. She creeped out quite a few peo­ple as she hov­ered around trick-or-treaters, glow­er­ing at them, arms crossed over her chest. No mat­ter what any­one did, she refused to speak or even smile. She just cocked her head to the side in a severely bored–and […]

To Bake A Cake

In Baking, Family, Miscellany on 26 October 2009 with no comments

I love to bake. The pri­mary rea­son I made Gracey Daylittle a pie baker is because it gave me an excuse to make lots of pie in the name of research.
But I, myself, am pri­mar­ily a bread and cake baker.
Today is my husband’s 35th birth­day, and I am mak­ing him an Italian cream cake. When […]