I do love magazines; right now I read Sunset, Quilter's Newsletter, and The New Yorker. My all-time favorite, the now defunct House and Garden, aimed for a market share somewhere between stodgy and trendy, traditional and modern: an average Joe's Architectural Digest and a trendsetter’s Woman’s Day. It featured homes and gardens that, on a good day, inspired me to get my scissors, clip, and think, "Maybe I could do that."

Anyways House and Garden's editor, Dominique Browning was the main reason I subscribed. I looked forward every month to reading her front-of-the-magazine editorial. Unlike some peppy, self-serving magazine editorials, Ms. Browning wrote candid, thoughtful essays about parenting, relationships, the love of plants and gardening, the positives and negatives of wanting/having, and the pleasures and difficulties of living a meaningful life.

In 2007 Conde Nast announced the end of the 100-year old House and Garden and said, "We no longer believe it is a viable business investment for the company" and blamed the demise of the magazine on the financial and real estate turndown. Ms. Browning walked into a routine meeting one morning and was told that she and her staff of forty no longer had jobs. She popped back into my virtual life the other day via an article in the on-line edition of the New York Times. She now writes a blog , Slow Love Life, about her life, her job loss and her ensuing weight gain, her renewal, and her upcoming book. The blog always contains pictures of plants, flowers, gardens, and links to interesting gardeners, food bloggers, and photo journalists.

Ms. Browning keenly felt the loss of work friends: her magazine colleagues, the morning coffee baristas, various lunch cart vendors, the building maintenance staff, and her fellow subway commuters. Our work life can disappear after a conflict with management, a dispute with a boss, a financial downturn, a disgruntled customer, or by personal choice. Regardless of reason, the people who populate our environment away from home carry substantial weight in our lives. Over the years, I’ve forged meaningful relationships with a boss, a co-worker, or a fellow commuter to see that important connection cut and eventually fade away. What support group gives counsel on how to get over a boss or a bus buddy?

Anyways, check out Dominique Browning’s blog, it’s a good one. And here’s an great recipe for Goat Cheese Tart given to me by an old bus buddy.

And because it is Easter:

Goat Cheese Tart

Filling:
• 1 # goat cheese
• 8 eggs
• 4 c. cream
• 2 T. chopped fresh herbs
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• 1 onion julienne

Crust:
• 2 ½ c. flour
• 1 t. sugar
• ½ t. salt
• ½ # butter
• ½ c. ice water

For crust: combine dry ingredients. Cut butter in with pastry blender. Using table fork briefly add ice water until just mixed.

Sauté onion in butter slowly, slowly until soft and caramelized.

Combine eggs, cream, fresh herbs, mustard, sautéed onions, and goat cheese.

Pour into uncooked shell. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees.