Bread, Wine, Salt

In October of 1997 I was on a ferry from Calais, France to Dover, England.  From Dover my friend and I had a long train ride to the North of Scotland.  After a month of hostels and backpacks and European men with questionable intentions, my friend and I were still friends, but we did not have eight hours of conversation left in us. I needed a book. I picked two books from the duty-free gift shop on the Ferry, and read them both on the train. One was The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian, number 18 in a popular series featuring the brave, dashing sailor Jack Aubrey and his friend the naturalist and intelligence agent, Stephen Maturin. The eighteenth book is not the best place to jump into a story, but O'Brian and his publisher knew that, and the new reader is helped along with crucial bits of backstory, so I didn't have trouble following it. I've forgotten the other book I bought that day, but in the nearly 16 years since I first read The Yellow Admiral I've be...

We've been having a pretty low key summer. I signed the boys up for one session of swim classes, which fizzled out when someone got a fever and someone else didn't want to go anymore (not that he could have gone when his brother had a fever anyway.)  And the rest of the time I've just been doing whatever occurs to me. So we went to a minor league baseball game and sat so close we needed a net to protect us from foul balls. We learned some new chores. We watched a movie at an Aunt's house. We've built a lot of things. We played in the sprinkler. We ate healthful snacks. And then there's this: Homemade Kettle Corn I could pretend its good for us, since it's whole grain and all, but I won't. It's delicious and doesn't need to be justified. You'll need a stove-top popcorn maker, or an electric version that stirs. Ingredients 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter 1 Tablespoon high heat oil such as sunflower 1/3 cup popcorn ke...