That Jim Harrison is something else!

I wonder how much the rumors of his hookup with Natalie Portman have to do with this separation?

For me, Bayou Cuisine is my go to cookbook.  Most of the things I cook are thrown together from whatever is in my cupboards or that I’ve cooked so long I can do it in my sleep.  But Bayou Cuisine is special.  It is filled with Mississippi Delta food from the 60’s and 70’s that range from the sophisticated to the not.   Oysters "Johnny Reb’…..The pages of our special holiday recipes are smeared with sweet potato and brown sugar or stained with butter.  I love it and the recipes are history of this little place I’m from.

I’ve Loved You So Long was amazing. All the performances were inspiring and beautiful and painful. How did it not win tons of awards?

If only I were that fat….

I thought that Nicole Sheridan’s arms looked more pencil perfect than picture perfect! Skin and bone!

Diana, Unfortunately, Lee Bailey died around 2003. I love his cookbooks.

I send hand-made new year’s cards every year. Just a goofy photo of something I took (usually food) and a silly wish for a happier new year inside.

I couldn’t put down David Benioff’s City of Theives and if you haven’t read Loving Frank - read it now.

Here’s my thought… I’m a single parent with 2 kids. Guy is a single parent with 2 kids… Think he’s on e-Harmony? Ha ha!

I love Garden & Gun magazine and don’t own a garden or a gun. It is a beautiful, well-written magazine with sense of place. Don’t knock it till you read it…

Hey! I’ve met Johnette a couple of times when i lived in Athens, GA. She invited me on her tour bus when i was pregnant and blessed my child (hand on belly thing). Living in Athens i met and a various times hung out with most of REM (Michael Stipe was my landlord), the women of the B52’s, River Phoenix, Nenah Cherry and lots of other musicians. It was a blast!

I met Sam Shepherd on the street in New York City, and was the smiling-est girl you’ve ever seen. My friend went straight into a restaurant and drank champagne to celebrate. I met Elvis when I was 5. I was in the Children’s Hospital in Jackson and he came to visit us. He gave my parents and i tickets to his show that night and I gave him my hair ribbon. It was pretty amazing. In my line of work I meet lots of celebrity chefs, does that count? I’ve gotten to hang out with Emeril a time or two…Dated some musicians. Spoke with Billy Bob Thornton on the phone. I’ve had dinner with Morgan Freeman. I was actually pretty impressed with myself until I read all of your stories. You people are amazing!

I’m named after my grandmother, Lenore. She, mother, and sisters stayed up all night playing gin (my mom and grandmother drinking gin), waiting to watch Diana marry Prince Charles. Some storybook… Anyway, my daughter was born in late July 1997. My husband and son were away somewhere. My daughter woke up hungry, and I surfed channels while she nursed. I turned to CNN and saw the announcement. I called my mother immediately. It was about 2 am. We watched the news together, long-distance, in silence. We cried over the loss of Diana and the loss of Lenore. I’ll always remember it.

Me? I love Madonna. I lived in a smallish town in Mississippi without much of a radio station and pre-MTV. I heard “Holiday” late, late one Friday night on some radio station in Chicago that I mysteriously picked up. I was hooked. I think my high school was gripped by “Alabama,” “Oak Ridge Boys,” and “Gap Band” Fever. Madonna was new. I went to the mall and found one copy of her album and I loved it. I played it everyday. I went to the hardware store to find rubber rings to wear as bracelets. I got sent home from school for wearing the first 80’s miniskirt. Madonna was different, a free spirit, her own person - not exactly virtues in a small private school. She made me feel not so weird for not like in country music and not being “preppy.” I haven’t bought all of her albums or seen her in concert, but i still love her. She is strong and sexy - and I wanted to be that too. I don’t know what my favorite Madonna period is. I loved her 40’s movie star glamour in Express Yourself and her stripped down earthiness in Ray of Light, but I gleaned something from them all… I love Blues and Jazz and well…. there’s not much mucis i don’t like with the exception of pop country. I don’t think that Madonna is neccessarily about the music as much as being a woman with power and smarts and savvy…. Happy Birthday to her.