I have deleted this blog entry. Evidently, present actions are bringing up past hurt. I apologize for allowing my temper to get the best of me.

This place, which once brought me so much joy, has brought me nothing but pain for pretty much this whole year. My heart throbs around the black… Read full post »

You’d never know it to look at me, but I love a good conspiracy theory. I’m a pudgy little mother of four, college-educated, a food writer… I quilt for Pete’s sake. But, part of me loves the creepy feeling I get from haunted houses, Stephen King and a nice, juicy conspiracy/… Read full post »

What follows is a love/Dear John letter to Gordon Ramsay. No scallops were harmed in the production of this article.

Dear Gordon Ramsay:

I want to love you – really I do. Nothing is more beautiful than the simplicity and strength of the recipes you give on The F-Word. (Especially t… Read full post »

There are places in the world so inarguably beautiful that they become legendary. Americans may not know Peggys Cove by name – but if you’ve ever seen a picture of a lighthouse, you’ve probably seen Peggys Cove. It’s hard to believe that a place so photographed and visited has… Read full post »

The Five Fishermen restaurant in Halifax is my kind of place. Old? Excellent seafood? Haunted? — They are playing my song. The building was originally built in 1816 as the Church of England’s National School. In 1884, the school was converted to The Victorian College of Art, with Anna Leo… Read full post »

 



My first trip to New Orleans was in 1981. I was six years old and had just transplanted from New Jersey to Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola is the older, slightly less promiscuous sister of New Orleans. The history, architecture, music and food are echoes across Interstate 10, bouncing back/…

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As a mother of four, I am well-accustomed to screaming my order into the clown’s mouth then having my food thrown out a window in the general direction of my driver’s side window. The contrasts between ordering popcorn and a slushy at Target’s snack counter and a formal dining situa… Read full post »

It’s Jodi vs. Martha time again!
It’s been awhile since I last attempted one of Martha Stewart’s admittedly excellent recipes, but Martha caught me in her net yet again with her “Martha Stewart Cookie of the Day” email about Black Forest Cookies.

Three kinds of choco… Read full post »

Irish Beef Stew

If you’re having a crowd over for St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll want to be sure you have something to serve that will fill everyone up before the green beer starts to flow. This stew is real food – add some love and you’ll have a dish that will… Read full post »

Get it? 3/14?

Yeah - I have the feeling that the idea of Pi Day appeals to The Man about as much as Pie Day appeals to me. So – for him I will not roll my eyes when he does a little dance during Pi MINUTE (3:14 on 3/14). I will… Read full post »

There is a surprising amount of controversy over chili. “Chili” is short for “chili con carne” – literally translated as “peppers with meat.” For our purposes, I’ll define chili as a spicy stew made with meat, peppers, onions, garlic, cumin, chili powde… Read full post »

 


Tim Tebow is the second coming of the Christ child according to most Florida fans. If you ask them, he single-handedly delivered two BCS championships, won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and just one touch from Tebow can heal leprosy or rickets. There’s no doubt that Tebow is a magnificen/… Read full post »

Every parent faces heartbreaking decisions.
Pudge is my baby - my fourth and last child.
There will never be another first haircut, first tooth, first smile, first step or first word. There are lots of other firsts that will come and go. But, each of them holds the bittersweet knowledge that it is… Read full post »

 


I have always thought I was a writer. I wrote my first original joke at the age of five. When I was seven, I thought I could improve upon the Bazooka Joe jokes, so I made my own wrappers and then carried them up to the Mom & Pop store in front/… Read full post »

 

 



No, I didn’t lose 72% of my body weight (though I would not be opposed to that). After an especially embarrassing incident involving several glasses of wine, a 20 hour day and a few completely nonsensical comments on my part, I have decided I’m cutting back on my OS us/…

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I believe that there are both positive and negative aspects to the current violent murder of stereotypes. I admit a measure of trepidation as I begin, but I hope to equally offend everyone and thus balance out the righteous indignation scales. At heart, I am a comedienne, so I do have/… Read full post »

 
 

Most of the wisdom I have gained in this life came from other people. For the most part, I don’t have especially good judgment – I just fake it well by not making any sudden moves and applying the comma rule to everything I do. Most people who have taken a writing/… Read full post »

 


The general impression of the middle class Victorian home, especially in London, normally includes a servant or two. If a family had a single servant, she was a “maid-of-all-work” – a general purpose helper who would primarily give the lady of the house a hand with/… Read full post »

 


Me: “The recycling dude won’t take the aluminum foil, Mom.”

Mom: “You just haven’t cleaned it enough. If it’s clean enough, he’ll take it away.”

Me: “I don’t think they take foil. They’ll take the cans, but they won’t

… Read full post »

::Note: This is not meant to be a witty commentary or prize-winning writing. This is just a conversation I'd like to have with my e-blip peeps.::

Everyone has a favorite song. Usually, it changes over time. Something poppy and mindless from our youth is replaced by a song that got us through
…

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There's something about the turning of the year that makes folks want to resolve to do better in the year that's to come. For whatever reason, resolutions have become part of our society. In my world, the New Year is part of its own month and happened about two months ago. But,… Read full post »

 


Open Salon is a really big place. It's also almost two years old. We often tend to look back at the past day, month or year, but we have all had that sinking feeling that there is a body of work here that escapes us. This is my effort to guide… Read full post »

 

Somewhere in here, there’s a confession that is starving to death. I can smell it.

How does the Christmas cactus know it's time to go all pinky when the air conditioner is still running?

The Wiggles sang, "We're All In the Madhouse Now" today. I'm going to take that personally.

There/… Read full post »

 


It's been an amazing year on Open Salon. One would be hard pressed to find a subject that has not been given thoughtful analysis and inspired passionate opinions in the past year.

Choosing just ten of my very favorite posts has been a challenge to say the least. I hav/…

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