Tag: Family

Food We Eat (or Don’t)

I stopped by Nick and Heather’s house yesterday to drop off a tablespoon of bourbon for a truffle recipe Nick was making. I asked Nick what he made for his family Thanksgiving. “I made this delicious farro recipe. Want to try it?” It wasn’t until a depressing day in 1994 sitting on the steps of…

On Changing My View of Cooking

making tea, how to make iced green tea

Today, I have a guest post over on “Take Back the Kitchen,” a great blog hosted by Alma Schneider. My post is a RECIPE (don’t faint) I created for Iced Green Tea that actually tastes good. Yes, I realize that I won’t win any foodie awards for this recipe. (ie. What? “Boil water. Put tea…

More Mystery than Family

Louis Bonaventure Chanez and Margaret Salome Urban Chanez Agnes Schebler Hiegel and Alois Hiegel — While I was at my parents place for their 50th, I got a little melancholy about genealogy. I guess as we get older, it’s easier to see how our lives are like a filament in a lightbulb… Once we break…

Food Courage, No Judgment

This weekend, the kids and Colin and I went to New Jersey for the first time, (barring a visit to Newark airport) to visit a family of friends. It’s sort of rare to meet another family with more than two or three kids these days, so we immediately magnetized to Alma and Brian and their…

The First Recipe

A BIG QUESTION Guest Post by Krista Richards Mann — I love cooking. Starting in grade school, my mother let me make dinner for the family once a week. The first recipe I remember learning was something she called salmon patties. We removed small vertebras from a can of salmon with our fingers, mixed the…

A Great Christmas Memory

(This is a guest post from Paul Merrill, part of the If Only in My Dreams: Big Question Series.) Christmas means different things to different people. After 22 years of marriage, Heather and I are finally understanding how much our families influenced how we enjoy holidays. How many presents are under the tree? Do you…

Vacationland: Switch off and Tune In

I need a vacation. Let’s all insert here for a minute the list of blessings I have. Nice house Good family Everything I need and want (food, clothing, shelter) Friends Education Human Rights Time to meditate and do yoga Lots of good books, and a library card too. Many more OK, even in the face…

Make some memories

This is a guest post from Paul Merrill. Saturday. For those of us who work Monday through Friday, Saturday is a precious day. It’s the only day we can knock a few things off that everlasting to-do list. So a few weeks ago, my son asked me to spend a Saturday with him at the…

On Being Underscheduled

Ahhh. Today was one of those most perfect days. I was so happy because my zen-wonderful brother-in-law/sister-in-law and their kids were visiting. They have such a nice way of arriving with their own unplanned, unhurried, not-worried manner. They are — or seem to be — just quite happy to hang out at our house and…

More Stuff Than I Could Ever Need

I told Colin last night that if I ever, actually, cracked, the cause would be: STUFF. People — namely me and the those concerned with me — spend a ridiculous amount of time fussing over THINGS. I’ll define the limitations of what I am referring to herewith: Stuff: Anything not attached to your naked body,…

Stress in the Rearview Mirror

This picture reminded me instantly of our summer vacation in Maine and of floating on my back, gazing at the blue sky and hearing only the sound of my own breath. But then, it also reminded me of this new feeling I own… a tight grip on my heart that comes from the constant stress…

A Poem to Those Who Love Me

Make the day pause, A top all done now the spinning: But not yet toppled. If (for just one day) I am the morning sun, Then You are the luscious hills I peek over; The refracting air dew –In winter, air’s mirror– And that single ecstatic Songbird rambling Her grocery list. And if, At noontime,…

It Takes a (Christmas) Village?

#Reverb Day 6 Prompt: Make: What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?  (Thanks, Gretchen Rubin) I made cookies (seen pictured), 500 or so of them for a church fundraiser. Well, actually I just rolled…

The Word for the Year: Denial

“Forever is composed of nows.”  ~Emily Dickinson Denial has saved me this 2010. Denial is my word for 2010. Let’s be clear. I use denial for good. I use it to protect myself and some important people from thinking too much: thinking about pain, thinking about loss, thinking about the possibility of an empty or…