Kathleen Purvis

If I clean off my desk before midnight, can I make 2009 get here faster? Because 2008 is starting to feel like a jawbreaker I've been working on too long.

An odd assembly of people ditched their regular duties to gather in the Ember Grille at the Westin hotel on a Monday afternoon last week.

For my two-part series “Pig to Plate,” which concludes today, I wanted to follow the process of making a country ham.

It happens every year. The farmers markets are boiling with people all summer. Then Labor Day passes it and it's like somebody rang the bell at the close of the stock market. The parking lots empty, the aisles go quiet.

I've had strange dinners and wonderful dinners. This one was strange and wonderful.

Gazpacho at the beginning, gazpacho at the end. And in the middle, a sublime spaghetti.

Call it a slightly quieter

The title of a new book that arrived last week caught my eye: Slow Food Nation's “Come to the Table: The Slow Food Way of Living.”

I can't say this one was a chore I'd duck.

This September will mark several anniversaries for me. It will be 23 years since I married, and 23 years since I moved to Charlotte. (A couple of days apart for each event – who says I can't embrace change?)