I made these cookies today. The dough is mixed, chilled, then cut into slabs for baking. I have included below the original recipe from a GREAT cookie cookbook: bigfatcookies by Elinor Klivans. (I found my copy at a thrift store and use it often.) Because Ray and I don’t eat refined sugar, I have added…
Category: Los Angeles
Good Storytelling in the Film “Mud”
I saw the movie Mud today and I can highly recommend it. I was impressed with the acting – a welcome surprise when it comes to Matthew McConaughey. I also thought the story was first-rate and illustrated a few elements that are important for all good story telling. These elements include: A rich setting. The…
Beach: Then and Now
The first time I sat on the beach at an ocean was when I was sixteen-years-old and I had come to Sierra Madre, CA from Texas to visit my sister, Leslie. She took me to Manhattan Beach, which was beautiful except for the offshore oil derricks. I had a brand new white bikini that I…
Luna and the Advantages of Planning
I am on the Gold Line train heading out to spend the day with baby Luna and daughter Sarah. This had not been my plan for today, but Sarah asked me yesterday if I could help her. I had a dozen tasks slated for today that I scurried around yesterday and completed. I am not…
Religion and Family Values Here in Beverly Hills
When I was growing up in my little Texas town, I knew one man who was a Jew. He was the father of a friend of mine and I didn’t actually know him well. He was a local dentist, Dr. Poliakoff. After I married and moved to Sherman, Texas (25 miles from my hometown of…
A Great Film Produced by A Few People I Know
I just returned from seeing Gatsby. I have to say that despite a reluctance on my part to go to see this film because of the lukewarm reviews, I ended up absolutely loving it. I don’t even like Leonardo DiCaprio as a rule, but he was perfectly cast as Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire played…
Delicious Honey-Sweetened Orange Cookies
Today, I made these cookies. They are delicious. Of course, they had the benefit of having the superior flavor of one of our oranges from our Ojai grove. In fact, the oranges in the picture below are satsuma oranges, which are in the mandarin orange family along with tangerines and clementines. They have a wonderful…
Baby Luna, Public Transport, Comfortable Shoes and Me
I am staring at a pair of well-worn tennis shoes that I have up on the chair across from me so that Cordelia doesn’t decide to drag one or both outside for a good chewing. These tennis shoes – gray Asics – with my socks stuffed in the tops are a little tattered and completely…
A Happy Visit
My nephew, Jim, is here with his two friends, John and Murray. They have just ridden their bikes from San Francisco to LA on Highway One. They arrived at mid-day looking tired, slightly sunburned, but happy. They said they had a wonderful trip, camping on some nights and staying in motels on others. They stopped…
Helping Hands
I am sitting here at my glass table in the living room. It is 9:12 pm and I have been responding to my online students’ reading comments for one class and editing a chapter of another student’s novel. Today, I wrote a proposal for another class for Story Circle Network – Healing Through Writing –…
20 Minutes a Day 