Deep and Wide: Book Reviews

It was the summer of 1992. We lived in Hong Kong, but I still worked as a flight attendant for American Airlines.  I took nine months off a year and commuted to Chicago to fly the busy summer months.   I often stayed with good friends, Bruce and Louise Plagman.  The Christmas tree was not up in the summer.  I just like this picture of them. One particularly pleasant day we were invited to a barbecue at a friend of theirs. His name was Fred. He served the best brisket and ribs I’d ever had. But his BBQ sauce was off the charts. This excited me very much because my husband and I feel strongly that there are a few recipes you should have the best of. Like: the best guacamole, the best salsa, and the best barbecue sauce ...  among others. We were always on the hunt for them.  And, thanks to Fred, I knocked one off our list. It was an epic meal and that’s why I remember the year (to be honest … it could have been ...

Mei Mei Holmberg 1997-2015 RIP Have you ever done something you can’t reverse or repair, and find yourself unable to forget or forgive yourself? May 6 th , 2015 I did something that made me feel that way. It was a beautiful day. I played Glassy Mountain golf course with my husband and a friend. It is a fantastic course, but tough and long. By the end ... I was really tired. Then we stopped in for BBQ at a delicious little dive. Now I was really full and really tired. Arriving home, I did what I always did first … I let the dogs out. Only I didn’t let them both in. Mei Mei was a week from turning eighteen years old. She couldn’t see much anymore, her hearing was gone, but she still had a bit of puppy spunk in her. Her appetite was great and her tail wagged constantly. Mei Ling, her daughter, was about to turn fourteen, very spry and always right on my heels. After the puppies did their thing, I walked back into the house through the garage...