Posts Tagged ‘Michigan’
Michigan’s Smoked Whitefish Dip Recipe
Everyone has their own. It’s like Lebanese seven-spice mix: which seven depends on who is doing the mixing, but the mix is happening, everywhere you go there. And for the record, it’s not always seven. I grew up on three (salt+pepper+cinnamon). Here in Michigan, where whitefish dinners reign supreme (and lunches too–I ate the finest…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
Thaw, with her gentle persuasion, is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces. ~ Henry David Thoreau (Little Traverse Bay responds beautifully to gentle persuasion, as we all do…. ) Thank you for your patience these months of work on my book, my dear friends. First draft is…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
They got up steam and proceeded calmly to the north where there seemed to be no people, but only mountains, lakes, reedy snow-filled steppes, and winter gods who played with storms and stars. ~Mark Helprin, A Winter’s Tale (The winter gods have been playing well Up North. The tundra is buried in snow, but beautifully. Just…
Read MoreHappy Valentine’s Day
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. ~Buddha (Valentine’s Day, we love your hearts and candy and roses, but most of all your message. It is akin to the message of Buddha and of ice-glazed…
Read MoreFavorite Gifts Ideas from Up North, for you
Main Street in Harbor Springs is an amazing place all year round, but during the holidays, our town will send you over the moon. There are big, fluffy snowflakes coming down pretty much from here on out, and there is nothing like strolling up one side of the street and down the other, sipping…
Read MoreA very special announcement…(spoiler: I’m publishing a book!)
As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time with cookbooks. The writing life may be a solitary one, but in the presence of a well-built library, a writer hardly feels alone. When I lived on my own in San Francisco for a year to go to culinary school, the house I rented…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
Love is the most necessary of all virtues…the fire of love of God and neighbor–it will work wonders. ~St. Anthony Mary Claret (On the feast of All Saints this week, I’m thinking of St. Anthony Claret of Spain. He took the road less traveled when he founded the small but powerful Claretian Missionaries. I worked…
Read MorePostcard from Up North
Should you fall even fifty times a day, never on any account should that surprise or worry you. Instead, ever so gently set your heart back in the right direction. ~Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (Morning mist rising off of Pickerel Lake. Gazing on gentle beauty encourages the gentle recalibration of the heart.)
Read MorePostcard from Up North
On pavements and the bark of trees, I have found whole worlds. . ~ Mark Tobey (Peak leaves, fallen, front steps. Moments like these, one wonders how we survived without such color til now, and how we’ll possibly get along when she is gone.)
Read MoreMichigan apples, comfort me
It was the kind of fall morning that Michigan does best: mist rising off the bay, sun just up over the horizon, leaves on the cusp of their burning beauty. The day promised sunshine, warmth, and apples. Lots of apples. My friend Bill Sherman has been telling me about his family business, and invited…
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