A Big Storm Knocked It Over

We've been suffering through--and surviving--various forms of flu in our household so I haven't had time to blog at all in a while. I have managed to catch up on some reading and right now enjoying some Laurie Colwin novels with the Cupcakes. My friend Judy, who is soon to be visiting us from New Hampshire for several days with her husband Charlie, is bringing down Home Cooking and More Home Cooking (special requests from my bookshelf in New Hampshire, which also make me realize I need to pack up more books to bring down here...we can always get more bookshelves, after all).

Until recently, I only knew Laurie Colwin as a food writer, but thanks to Rosemary, one of the Cupcakes (and a fine cook and literati herself, with extraordinary pantries), we are now enjoying her fiction. Please join us in our discussion of Laurie Colwin in the month ahead on our book blog, Cupcake Chronicles. It will be the perfect marriage of books and food.

But I have lots of backlogged posts to put up here in the pantry, too, and I will, including my first foray into fried chicken and other topical items of interest to this New Englander turned Kentuckian. Oh yes, and our first tornado warning. That was a doozy, or "a humdinger," as my father used to say when I was a child in Ohio. So imagine my delight when there actually was a tornado in A Big Storm Knocked It Over, Laurie Colwin's last novel and my first read of her, apart from her food writing. As someone who grew up fearing twisters--thanks to that footage in The Wizard of Oz and Charlie Humbard, a preacher's son with whom I went to school, who told me all about them in the first grade--I like the fictitious ones the best.

This evening, as I was catching up on some emails (what would I do without the internet or e-mail, especially in this new land?), I got a "Google Alert" about an article that appeared in The Dallas Morning News today, "Make the Most of Your Pantry Space." The author gave a wonderful plug to The Pantry and also to my blog. If you are here visiting my blog for the first time, welcome! [You can also find out more information about The Pantry at my website: www.CatherinePond.com] I do still write about pantries, on occasion, but also about food, domestic chatter, and the odd bit of life in general. I hope you will feel free to comment and contribute here.