Bonny Reichert's Blog, page 2

The Best of 2024

Double Caramel Tarte Tatin — one of the best things I made all year. (Scroll down for recipe.)

December 18, 2023: I was walking with Michael on the beach in Nosara when a resolution bubbled up. I’d buy a pile of notebooks and write something every day. It could be a brain dump, a snippet of dialogue, a recipe, a grocery list. But I’d write every damn day. As an experiment. For one year. How hard could it be?

January 1, 2024:

The sand was firm under our feet. The beach was wide and clean. The sun...

Dad's Brunch

When I was a child but actually, not just a child — for my entire life until about twelve years ago — my dad owned restaurants. We owned restaurants. This was my dad’s occupation and sometimes, my mom’s. Sometimes, also, my sisters’ and mine, because our restaurants were true family businesses. I remember how proud I felt when I was finally old enough to carry a coffee pot, going around to the tables to see which customers needed a top up.

My dad was an orphan and he had no siblings — his sister...

Camera Shy

“Sooner or later, you’re going to have to turn the camera on yourself.” I was at one of the professional development seminars Penguin Random House runs for its authors, and the young, best-selling self-help writer was giving advice on how to start a Substack, of all things. Can I tell you I was slightly horrified?

I didn’t think she was wrong; in fact, I was quite sure she was right. It’s just that I don’t like having my picture taken; don’t love selfies. Generally speaking, I’d rather show you ...

Hello, Sweetness

Before the pandemic, we moved to a new house — closer to downtown, narrower in footprint. It was built in 1869, it’s loaded with period charm and despite the darkness of covid that arrived shortly after our relocation, we’ve been very happy here.

There’s just one thing: When it comes to entertaining, the new house is not like the old house. There, I had a big rectangular dining room that could, with a squish and a couple of card tables, hold close to twenty people. Here, the dining room is more ...

How to Share an Egg — First Look!

Can I just say that I’m overjoyed to share my memoir’s cover with you? Thanks to the extraordinarily talented Léa Maupetit for the beautiful egg, to Rachel Ake at Ballantine for the gorgeous design. Thanks to my brilliant agent Michelle Tessler, my wonderful editor Sara Weiss, the entire crew at Ballantine, and the great people at Appetite. This book has been inside me for decades, but honestly, I wasn’t sure I would ever get it out. These are the people who showed me the way.

The book is featur...

On Joy (and Farmers Markets)

This one is for Jesse, whom I met over bagels and smoked sturgeon in New York City a few weeks ago. We were talking about writing, of course. (What else?) It’s hard to write humour, I said, referring to a book he had just finished editing. And it’s hard to write sex, I added, building a list of the things I “can't do.”

“It’s hard to write joy,” Jesse said, smiling at me. It was a compliment — a big one — because Jesse had read the pages of my book, How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Lo...

Found and Lost in Portugal

I just had a birthday that took me, firmly, into the second half of my fifties, and I was lucky enough to get to celebrate in Portugal. Three days of endless walking and sunshine in Lisbon, and then we were off to the Alentejo region — a land of cork trees, giant stork nests atop lampposts, cool Atlantic breezes.

We didn’t tour. We didn’t hike, drive to the more well-known (and busier) Algarve, see as much of the country as we could. We settled in around Comporta, read books, walked on the beac...

Strawberry Fields

I don’t just have food obsessions, I have food gathering obsessions. I was born a forager and, growing up, I wanted to pop every random mushroom and berry into my mouth. At summer camp in Alberta, I found Saskatoon berries growing in the brush outside the dining hall, and I hid out in there, dropping the potent smaller-than-blueberries into my blanket-covered canteen (which is what we used for hydration before fancy water bottles — they looked like this) when I should have been at arts and craft...

Two Truths and a Recipe

It’s been a while since I delivered a full-on recipe — dreamed up, tested, carefully written — just for you. Today is that kind of day. How to Share an Egg is with the good copy department at Penguin Random House and I’m waiting. “Relaxing” is what I’ve been telling myself. Catching up on sleep. Exercising. Working on rehab for my right shoulder, which I injured with too many hours/days/weeks/months at my computer. Writer friends have told me it’s from overuse of the right hand on the the track...

Ramps & Rituals

About a week ago, I was walking down a country road at the cottage, hand in hand with a little person for whom such walks are a new experience. We were searching. Searching for the little patch of green leaves and red stems that pops up every year, near the stop sign, and reminds me what I love about life.

Foraging for ramps, otherwise knows as wild leeks, has become one in a cycle of food gathering rituals that mete out the rhythm of my year. I live in a city and not everything can be gathered i...