I write about food, history, travel, and freelancing. — Hi folks, I’m Lara. I’ve been a freelancer of one stripe or another for most of my adult life. These days, the bulk of my living comes from writing. I’m a pretty flexible generalist who does everything from ghostwritten business books to web content to paranormal romance novellas. I love…

We’ve all done it — taken a chance on a cheap red wine and wound up with something less than awesome. Spanish wine drinkers came up with a counterintuitive solution, that I swear to you is surprisingly delicious. What’s in a Kalimoxto? This wine-based cocktail has just two ingredients: chilled red wine and Coca-cola…

Use stuff you already have on hand for a show-stopper dessert — This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through my links, I get a small commission at no additional cost to you. I’m all about easy and adaptable. With a tiny kitchen, I need for every ingredient to have multiple uses. I also can’t constantly buy new ingredients that I’ll…

Icy cool cocktails are my go-to when it’s warm outside. But, we just sailed up to North Carolina, and this Florida girl is COLD. Luckily, there are a bunch of hot, seasonal drinks to enjoy. This is a good one for parties, as well, since you can leave it bubbling…

I’m one of today’s Lucky 10,000 (Note: this is unedited and bloggish, but it fits my mood.) Of course I’d heard of Kate Bush, but until today, I only knew a couple of her songs. At 48, I came of age before music ran like water from a faucet. You…

Don’t be surprised if the girl you match with tells you she’s taking a break from hookups. — A poster on Reddit’s r/tinder sub shared a message that he found perplexing. He said hello to a woman he matched with and got this response: Heyy, I would like to continue this conversation when I don’t feel that my reproductive rights are in danger. I hope you understand that…

I’m a Taylor Swift fan. And, yeah, I’m as surprised as you are. — Back when she first started getting attention, I didn’t like much of what Taylor Swift was writing. What I heard on the radio was a bit simplistic Because of all this, Taylor Swift hadn’t done much more than ping my radar. I’d read quite a bit about her intricate marketing…

A few scheduled posts can keep you on track — Getting into the Partner Program can be tough for a newcomer. You need at least 100 followers and to be creating what the powers that be consider quality writing. Once you’re in, though, you still need to worry about keeping your place in the program. Medium reserves the right to…

We already know the harms of abortion bans. We’ve seen them before. And It will happen here. — It’s so easy to look at terrible news and think that could never happen here. We tick off all the reasons we Americans are safe from that, like it’s some kind of magic spell that will keep tragedy at bay. This century has repeatedly shown us that the U.S. is…