Hints on Sourdough Starters and Trans Life — So, my friend and one of the best contemporary LGBTQIA+ journalists, James Finn, has asked me to give tips on making a sourdough starter. I don’t vouch to be an expert on this. I’m just a chic who bakes. …

Serve Your Old Idea of God Some Strawberry Pie — I like toying with recipes, but yesterday, I went all out and created a recipe from thin air, going with a little bit of what’s worked for me before and a whole lot of undoing what I thought I knew. Most of the time, those recipes end up in disaster…

Too Small for the Headlines — Life is lived in inches and moments. Social media is keyed to show us the big, bad, brash, bodacious, and belittling. It also does some good stuff, too. I’ve noticed in my recent online travels that we seem to be hitting a saturation point. Before social media, we all knew…

A Socks-Off Way to Affirm Existence — No recipe for this week’s newsletter. It’s not because I’m out of them. In fact, this weekend, I made bread pudding, focaccia, and a hideously sunken banana walnut bread (still goes good down the hatch). This blog really isn’t a way to make…

And Cornbread Worth the Chili — On my morning commute the other day, Sting’s “Fortress Around Your Heart” came up in my playlist. Transition is both delightful and weird because, even years after realizing I’ve always been a woman, that awareness makes me see things anew. …

It’s All in A Hand Tart — So, my Substack is called “Magik,” and I pretty much bring up the idea of magik in every post. I’ve written books on the subject, trying to define something who’s nature itself is to be undefinable, un-abstractable, un-puttable into a box and commodified. I talk about magik via story, memoir…

Baking Resistance, Hobbit-Style — Let’s talk professional team sports (in general) and the National Hockey League (NHL) (in particular) and Hobbit-baking (as an answer). I’ll set the table by noting something about team sports that goes unnoticed because it’s the cultural air we breathe. …

Sunday Strega-Cauldron Spaghetti Sauce — Get out of your head all those Disney versions of witches. Hey, we’re all around you, and many witches don’t even know they’re witches. But they and their appreciators can feel it … in the sauce. Strega Sabbath I felt it most intensely in the autumn. My bedroom was on the other…

A Comfort Cookie Is Called For! — This week, Pam and I drove from Northern Colorado to Dallas, to see our son, Paul. I didn’t do so well on the roadtrip. Transition teaches me new things about myself, even long after transition has been done. …