By Libbie Summers
Assisted by David Dempsey

In 1977 I prayed for a sassy new hair style. I know it wasn’t something Jesus would have wanted me to use up one of my prayers for, but I did it anyway. My stringy straight hair matched my interest in Friday night church service…lifeless. So I used that time I was required to spend in a pew wisely –praying for curls. Curls like the Catholic girls wore. Long and spiral…like strands of bouncy pasta. I was Protestant, but for the right hair, I was willing to convert.

In 1977 Charles Hix wrote Looking Good: A Guide for Men. Basically the coolest men’s grooming guide ever published. The men famed photographer Bruce Weber captured within the pages seem effortlessly put together. Perfect. Maybe too perfect. Maybe some of them prayed for a sassy new hair style too…

Thank you Charles Hix for writing the coolest book ever and helping inspire my noodle week!

By Libbie Summers
Photography by Chia Chong

My dearest friend, Brenda, is a great cook. She’s also a lover of all things pink (from popsicles to pop stars), Richard Nixon biographies (I’m still trying to figure that one out) and karaoke bars. Brenda always keeps me laughing and on my toes. The day she opened a door in her home and showed me her immense and costly fabric collection I came close to dying from laughter. You see, my friend Brenda doesn’t sew.

Brenda and I do a food podcast together and have worked on the culinary production of some food television shows we’d probably both prefer to forget. We’ve had the pleasure of cooking together in back alleys, corn fields, roof tops and pastured pig farms. We’ve even driven a sketchy trailer across a peanut state to cook a private dinner for the 39^th United States President and his wife (they both asked for seconds).

Sure, Brenda and I have a lot of fun cooking together, but it’s the quiet time when we can lounge on a dock and eat a pile of hot onion rings (Brenda makes The World’s Best) or sit at a farm table and devour a just baked apple pie that are truly special to me. In those moments, we are two school girls again. We let down the guards we keep up for others and relax into our friendship. The food we share always binding us together and always helping feed new memories.

By Libbie Summers
Photography by Cedric Smith

My great uncle’s husband, Andrew, is a living breathing best in show. Andrew runs in the affluent world of animal showmanship. Since I’ve known him, Andrew has shown a miniature pony, 4 breeds of dogs, 3 breeds of chickens (one of which we were told never to mention when clearing customs), goats and doves. 

Andrew is a fascinating guy who not only has a penchant for ponies and pups he also makes a mean margarita. Over said drinks one afternoon, I asked him his secret for keeping his dog’s coats so shiny. Without hesitation Andrew walked to his refrigerator and pulled out a tub of yogurt. 

Now once a year, whether she needs it or not, our dog Maggie gets a yogurt hair condition. She doesn’t seem to mind it as I see her licking in between her toes for hours after –a leftover yogurt treat for enduring my need for her to be best in show and for Andrew to approve of me.  

Directions for a Shiny Dog Coat:
1. Wash your dog as usual.
2. Coat the fur with a layer of yogurt (amount will depend on the size of the dog, we use 3 cups for Maggie). Massage into the coat and allow to stay on for 5 minutes.
3. Rinse and pat dry. Feel free to leave a little in between the toes for a treat.

By Libbie Summers

I don’t remember a warm Easter Sunday. Missouri Easter mornings involved layers. A special dress, tights, wool coat, hat, gloves and shoes so painful they taught me patent leather was a cold conductor.

After Easter Sunday church service and before Easter Sunday lunch service we hunted for colorful eggs. Dad and uncle Ronnie would hide eggs in places only a professional basketball player or a mole could find –a parent’s sick kind of amusement.

According to my mother, the wardrobe for finding the unfindable hard boiled eggs in a lower middle class suburb was “anything goes” on the bottom half and a smart hoodie on top. “Smart” being code for a dull colored hand-me-down hoodie that was cinched so tightly around the head it left a chin mark that stayed well into Passover.

I counted the hoodies I currently have in my closet. There are 9. Each time I wear one, I’m taken back to those Missouri Easters and the fun I had with my sisters and my best friend Bobby. Running around a yard that felt like a football field and trying to beat each other to the next hidden colored egg (one we would never eat) was a this child’s Spring nirvana.
Hoodie up.
Smile wide.
Basket heavy.

These days, I don’t tie the hood of my hoodie up and I still don’t wear patent leather shoes.

Happy Easter! May your memories be as colorful as your basket.

(pictured above outside our home in Missouri.  From l-r Robbie (oldest sister), me, my best friend and cousin Bobby, Debe (middle sister)

By Libbie Summers
Photography by Chia Chong

High on a rolling cart in my studio, I keep a huge plastic storage container filled with adorable paper straws of every color and design. I also keep an orange tool kit filled with the straws I take on locations for photo shoots. Here’s the deal…I cringe when I use them.

The first photo I put a stripy paper straw in was nearly 8 years ago. I had brought back home a small box of the red and white candy striped kind from a European vacation. When you take only one backpack on a month long trip and use up part of that small storage space for a box of paper straws, you’re either crazy or you must really love them.  I handled those first straws like a heart ready to be transplanted. Always wiping them off and drying them to be used again. One jerk of a food stylist actually threw two away on that first shoot…I’ve never chosen to talk or work with her since (the straws were just the straw that broke the camel’s back).  

For the past 8 years, my clients have been asking for “some of your cute paper straws”.

“Libbie, wouldn’t it be cute if we put a stripy paper straw in that ridiculously tiny milk bottle?”
“Libbie, what do you think if we put a pink polka dot paper straw in that green glass with nothing in it?”
“Libbie, wouldn’t a few yellow striped paper straws be SO CUTE rolling out of frame with the just cut lemons and fresh mint leaves on weathered wood?” 

I oblige.
1. Because I have nearly 3,000 I need to justify buying.
2. Because I always want my clients to be happy.
3. Because secretly I must love the straws…because I keep buying them…and using them…and treating them like hearts ready to be transplanted. 


Fun Fact: These are my REDIC Bacon Banana Cookies from The Whole Hog Cookbook and were seen in Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 7…just sayin’.