I host a healthful meals blog and occasionally get asked about rich gravies and sauces.  It seems a misconception that there’s no room for them in a weight-loss or healthy diet.  Prevention magazine recommends one tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in one cup of liquid for an easy, fat-free sauce or gravy, but corn starch [...]

The recent deaths of J.D. Salinger and Robert B. Parker got me to thinking about all the authors I miss.  So I made a list of the authors I’m mad at for dying.
First, Louis L’amour.  Why oh why did you have to die, Louie, before writing the sequel to LAST OF THE BREED?  If you [...]

Did you make lofty, ambitious new year resolutions a few weeks ago?  New year’s resolutions are a tradition in our society, and I usually participate.  Then about mid-January, I lose my resolve.  Not always.  One year I set a goal to run my first marathon in October, and I succeeded.  But I’m not disciplined enough [...]

I love most holiday music.  I have dozens of CDs, everything from John Tesh and Harry Connick, Jr. to Elvis and the Carpenters.  I especially enjoy the anthologies (such as A VERY SPECIAL CHRISTMAS or SOUL CHRISTMAS) featuring various artists.  I’m nuts about Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller.  I even have a couple of Christmas [...]

With only a dozen days left till Christmas, you may be feeling the pressure. Are you hosting a dinner party or open house? Is your gift shopping completed? Are the decorations up? Are you relaxed and enjoying the holiday season?
Did you answer “no” on that last one? Oops. Perhaps [...]

Some people annoy me today with their piety about going green. Going green and protecting the environment is nothing new. It’s just getting back to basics. We wouldn’t need constant reminding of how we can reduce our carbon footprints if the last two generations hadn’t become so wasteful and bought in to [...]

I bought one of the first bread machines, back in 1990, and kept us in homemade bread.  That was back in the day when my husband and I both worked full-time careers in the corporate world, often requiring us to travel in opposite directions.  I viewed a bread machine as both a novelty (I made [...]

I often wear a T-shirt sold by D.A.R.A. (Dallas Area Romance Authors) that reads “Write Brained.”  I adore it, and it’s so apropos.  Writers will understand me when I say I write all the time, even when I’m not at the keyboard typing.  My work-in-progress (AKA “w-i-p”) is on my mind whether I’m cooking, exercising, [...]

Pardon the pun, but it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I have valuable information for you to pass on to your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and other young women you love.  Don’t wait until you reach the at-risk age to prepare your bodies to fight breast cancer.  There are things you can do–and eat–that lower [...]

I live about 100 miles from St. Augustine, Florida, the nation’s oldest city. If you’ve never been there, go. It’s amazing. You’ll learn history, you’ll shop, you’ll eat.
Did I mention eating?
The best fried shrimp I’ve ever eaten is in St. Augustine at a tiny roadside restaurant on A-1-A.  Osteen’s is an old, family owned [...]