Hello!
First off, if you’re new around here – and there are a lot of you! – hello, welcome, and most of all, thank you for signing up for this newsletter. I still can’t figure out where you all came from, but I’m thrilled to have you here and look forward to sharing snippets from my writing life on the first Thursday of every month.
I grew up in the suburbs south of Los Angeles, but my favorite part of California is the central coast, driving north along Highway 1 to San Francisco. We made that trip last week during my daughter’s spring break, and and I found myself astonished anew by the beauty, the sheer cliffs dropping into turquoise water, the sun and sky, the quiet majesty of ancient redwood trees. In Big Sur we hiked, and forded streams barefoot, and got caught on a windy beach, the sand stinging our skin like tiny needles. In San Francisco we strolled through Chinatown, ate tacos, and sampled almost every form of public transportation (cable cars, BART, MUNI). Even though it was only four days in a familiar place, it brought back all the joy and discovery of traveling that I somehow hadn’t realized I missed so desperately.
Here’s what else I’ve been up to…
What I’ve been eating
–I found the breakfast pastry of my dreams at the Big Sur Bakery, a delectable twist called a maple bacon bow. It was sweet and savory, the bacon slightly singed and crispy. Heaven!
–I haven’t been able to stop thinking about soufflés ever since Emily shared her secrets on David Lebovitz’s blog. For Easter I made this lemon recipe (New York Times), and last week my dad made Emily’s raspberry version, which was thrilling!
–I’ve owned the Zuni Café Cookbook forever but my gosh what a thrill it was to have dinner there in San Francisco. We ordered all the classic hits: caesar salad, ricotta gnocchi, the famous roast chicken and bread salad. THE CHICKEN. I documented the meal for posterity on Instagram. Sometimes I just look at their website and dream.
What I’ve been reading
–In San Franciso, a friend suggested we visit the Musée Mécanique and it was just the sort of quirky place you want to discover while traveling. This “museum” is actually a vintage arcade of antique coin-operated machines dating back as far as 1880 – slot machines, claw machines, fortune tellers, player pianos, video games, etc – all ready to spring to life at the drop of a quarter or two. The museum took a hard hit during the pandemic, but it’s open again and bustling. This short video offers a peek inside.
–They appeared in our front yard overnight: ground bees – bees that nest in the soil. We have a giant cloud of them swarming aimlessly around our house, and our house alone. According to this article, they’re harmless (they don’t sting), they aerate soil, and they’ll simply disappear in a couple of weeks. “You’ve been chosen,” said the exterminator, who came to make sure they weren’t yellow jackets. I feel honored… and really hope they go away soon.
–A month ago I hadn’t read any books by the 1930s British author Angela Thirkill, now I’ve read two. I’m not quite sure what to make her novels – they’re a meadering slice of English country life, but with a sharp slyly mocking twist. This recent review of a new Thirkill biography shed some light on her priveleged bohemian snobbishness. Wall Street Journal
–Follow the footsteps of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda on the Côte d’Azur in this travel article from France Today.
A bientôt!
This spring has been so cold I’ve yet to see a stick of rhubarb, but hopefully the month of May will bring in the goods – I’m dying to make my annual strawberry rhubarb pie, which I missed last year when we were living in the tropics. We never had the rhubarb in California, so I think of it as an exotic East Coast delicacy, and it never fails to amuse me how much it looks like celery.
Well that’s it from me! I’m off to glare out the front window at the bees swarming our porch. I hope you enjoy a lovely month of spring produce, thank you for reading, and see you in June!
XO Ann
Je l'aime!
Always informative and fun and usual.