Most of you will read this and think, “Oh God no! Fran had to spend a Christmas alone?!!!” I didn’t have to, I chose to, and actually, it was pretty wonderful. (Especially since hazelnut thumbprints were involved.)The kids and I celebrated on the 23rd with dinner out and gift giving, so when they left on the 24th, I was OK. (If they hadn’t celebrated with me first, I…
Yesterday was my sister-in-law Patty’s birthday. She is one of the nicest humans on the face of the earth and watching her raise her kids showed me the investment of time and love that goes into raising children. Why do you think I put it off for so long? I mention her because after many years of either not placing or not baking, she is finally the winner…
Well, I soaked it and soaked it. And after a lot of scraping, I uncovered what is definitely an apricot pit. So, since several of you answered correctly, I have to send the five dollars to the first person who guessed correctly, Nicol Zanzarella. So Nicol, I will either mail it to you, or hand it to you next time we meet for coffee because a promise is…
It’s the week before Thanksgiving and two days ago I was doing what I do every week before Thanksgiving — cleaning out all the forgotten crap in my fridge, so I can fill it with new crap that I’ll forget about in another 1.5 weeks. I came across this beauty of a…well, I’m not sure exactly what it is. I’m thinking maybe a desiccated apricot…but I’m not sure.…
I work four jobs and do voiceovers on the side, as well as teach voiceover classes, so of course, when my friend Allegra said, “Hey KCRW is having a pie contest, why don’t you sign up?” I said,”I’ll think about it.” The correct response should have been, “No, are you insane? I have enough on my plate!” But I must be the one who’s deranged because I signed…
I have been torturing myself with Duolingo lately. It’s a website where you can learn another language. For the past 40 years I have been trying (clearly not hard) to learn Italian. This week possession has been making me miserable because I can’t tell the difference between him and her. I’m learning handy phrases like: “Il gatto beve il suo latte,” which means the cat drinks his/or her…
My plan for this week was to write two fantastic blog posts to make up for the one I missed last week. (I spent last weekend with my family, drinking too much wine and celebrating my brother Bob’s birthday instead of diligently writing.) Thank you Patty (Bob’s wife) for planning the whole thing and getting me back there. But nature said, “Nah, we want to throw you…
Last week my friend, Denise and I met at Rocco’s, her favorite Italian deli on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. When I walked in, Denise was locked in conversation with a sweet, older Italian man, named Rocco, who was sitting beside her. Yes, this was THE Rocco. If Denise and I were stronger, we would have kidnapped him – that’s how cute he was. He told us about…
You know it’s summer when you open your door and someone has left a beautiful zucchini on your doorstep. You feel so special, until you look at your neighbor’s doorstep and see zucchini there too. Your neighborhood is probably filthy with them because everyone always underestimates the number of zucchini that comes from one plant. My father did his entire life. Estimates are, one plant gives three to…
You probably said, “Hey, Friday came and went, Fran should have posted her blog, only to find nothing. If you’re like my old boss at Warner Lambert, Jim Bair, you’re probably saying, “Fran, you either have it done, or you have an excuse, and if you have an excuse, I don’t want to hear it.” The good news is, Jim (mostly) broke me of that bad habit with…