roisin

I love all these stories! My first dinner party, in my tiny Chicago apartment, I was very young. First I burned off two inches of my bangs (this was the early nineties, so they were serious bangs with a lot of hairspray) and most of my eyebrows when I opened up the broiler drawer next to an open window to check on the chicken satay and a wall of flame leapt out. Just then the buzzer rang, and I let my guests in. They kept asking, "Is something burning?" and I thought they were smelling my burning hair, so I tried to carry it off. It turned out, the elegant candle I lit in the bathroom had found a similar gust of air and was sending up a four inch flame to the wooden cabinet above it. In spite of --or probably because of that-- it was the best party. We are all still friends and we still laugh about it. It taught me to always be honest with guests, and forget my mom's example of pretending to "carry off" a party flawlessly as if your guests are your enemies waiting for you to stumble.

I like the Sunflower Market here in Denver. I have a grocery budget so tight that it squeaks but I still want to feed my family good, whole, made from scratch food that is organic where it counts. They have good prices on a lot of their bulk items--flours, nuts, dry mixes for falafel and refried beans that don't have a lot of additives. They have good produce specials, and store brand organic canned goods and peanut butter that are really good quality and much less expensive than Whole Foods. Bulk coffee beans that are reasonably priced. They have a good, affordable cheese selection. I'm often surprised at the register at how low the total is, which never happens to me at other grocery stores. We don't buy much meat there, and nothing from the bakery or ready-to-go meals, so I can't speak to that.