All afternoon in the deck chair, I try to describe to my notebook the colors of the water and sky. How to translate sunlight into words?

After owning a pool, I think the best way to enjoy the water is to have a friend who has a pool.

What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we've sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.

There is no technique, there is just the way to do it. Now, are we going to measure or are we going to cook?

The Dream Lover-what a bold, insightful, and enticing novel. And how vigorously Elizabeth Berg brings us the iconoclastic life of George Sand. Berg writes with such intimacy and compassion that I think she must have some shared ancestral DNA with Sand. I savored every page.

Indecision is a virus that can run through an army and destroy its will to win or even to survive.

Going to Europe as a budding cook opened my eyes to food in a different way. When I got to Italy, the first thing I did was put my little basil plants in the ground and watch them turn into big, healthy bushes.