One of the simple joys in life is a pot of homemade soup. Winter, spring summer or fall, soup is always a welcome addition to a meal. Cannellini beans, both canned and dried, are a staple in our pantry. While traveling in Italy a few years ago, I experienced the culinary possibilities of cannellini beans prepared by a cook who has lived all of her life on a 12th century Tuscan estate.

Next week, Michelle Obama is launching a kid cooking show called “Waffles + Mochi.” In addition to executive producing the 10-part Netflix series that debuts March 16, she will play the role of the owner of a “whimsical supermarket” that employs two puppets named Waffles and Mochi. 

Early one frigid morning, I came upon a great blue heron lost in dreams of soft water. We had both come to a spot along the western edge of the pond that was the last place to freeze in the night.

These are really, really cold days.  When the term ‘polar vortex’ takes over nightly weather reports, all creatures great and small, winged, hooved and footed find themselves in the unforgiving grip of brutal extreme weather.

This brilliant February morning, the thermometer outside registers ZERO. Snow still as stone covers the ground. I carry a cup of cardamom chai tea to the harvest table. Before long, my thoughts begin to travel from the wintry scene beyond our patio door at Boomerang Creek to other scenes connected across time.

As I daydreamed that day about spring gardens, I suddenly found myself transported to a magnificent English garden. Leafing through a magazine, I’d come upon a drawing of Sisinghurst Castle garden in Kent—the garden created by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson in the 1930s and now maintained by England’s National Trust.

My first real encounter with winter came in 1955 when our family moved to western Massachusetts. It was a world of summer tobacco barns, truck farms, and deep snows in the winter months measured by the height of drifts piled up against our clothesline.

As 2021 got underway, ice encased every tree branch and blade of prairie grass at Boomerang Creek. Housebound, Kit and I gathered in front of the Buck stove and reflected on times when self-reliance and family got us through hard times.

Well before the first hint of dawn, I listen to the sounds our house makes in the night.

It was also our wedding anniversary—a date chosen because my mother had always wanted one of her four daughters to have a winter wedding.

In pre-Covid years when travel during the holidays was possible, Suzanne and Don would now be experiencing Rome in its festive mood during the Christmas holidays.

In this year of pandemic self-isolation, those of us who love cooking and enjoy a bottle of fine wine with a meal have become ever more epicurious. Family recipes are being prepared again, especially during the holidays, along with new dishes from sources like The New York Times weekly food columns by Sam Sifton.

For Thanksgiving, Kit and I ordered a holiday takeout meal prepared in Sycamore’s kitchen.  While picking up the meal, we walked to the back of the restaurant to booth #12 where our Sycamore oil painting now lives.

The entire bottom of the trunk was filled with locally crafted fabrics from Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Pakistan—reminders of the places I traveled to while living in Asia.

In everyone’s life, there should be at least one family road trip across America that shines in the collective memory of all who were along for the ride.

Early mornings, we gathered in the predawn hour on our covered porch—masks on and wool plaid blankets piled across our laps.

I am a huge fan of Sam Sifton’s NYTimes.com Cooking column. While reading his suggestions for what to cook while coping with the 2020 elections, I learned about an article by Samin Nosrat—author of “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” and star of a four-part Netflix documentary inspired by her travels and cookbook.

Following the November 2016 elections, I felt like I was drowning in a political nightmare and did the only thing I could think of to save myself. I joined a local fitness club with a saltwater pool and started swimming for my life.