I was standing in the middle of the grocery store parking lot last October when the smell hit me. Someone nearby was walking past with … Read more

My neighbor, a woman named Gladys who must have been pushing eighty, watched me struggling with a particularly stubborn butternut squash one October afternoon. I … Read more

My neighbor Jenna wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I’d stopped by to borrow a ladder on a random Thursday afternoon, and this smell hit me … Read more

The fall potluck was in six hours and I had nothing. Not a casserole, not a dip, not even a half-baked idea. I’d signed up … Read more

I was waiting for my car to get an oil change last November—a Tuesday, I think—when the mechanic, a guy named Sal who always has … Read more

I was elbow-deep in a bag of frozen peas last Tuesday — you know, the kind where you’re just trying to get dinner on the … Read more

My brother had sworn he hated butternut squash for a decade. Ten solid years of wrinkling his nose at any orange-tinged dish I brought to … Read more