The Foodlife Journey: The Friendly Lunchbox
When it comes to the contents of your kid’s lunchbox you can break (almost) all the rules. Don’t try so hard. Stop wringing your hands about your lack of creativity. If your kid eats a PBJ every day for the next five years, it’s okay. Lunch is the meal at which you can apply your impulses to short-order cook. Can you believe it? Has the moving stress gotten to me and I’ve finally gone mad?! Read more
Culinary Xanax
I now have one more important criterion for a new house: ambient light quality. We're just off a four-day whirlwind house hunting trip in Westchester County, NY. I shot this to test the quality of light on the range top. This little cup with cotton-tipped swabs was just sitting on the counter. Pretty, eh? It's a promising backdrop for the Ready Prep Go! kitchen of the future.
I am in the middle of another relocation- the fourth in 10 years. We’re headed back to New York- whenever we get there. The emotional and practical chaos has been crushing. House-hunting trips, home showings and endless to-do lists have squeezed home cooking out of my life. Exercise time has become unpredictable. I’ve imbibed too many of my daily allotment of calories from stemware. Read more
The Foodlife Journey
Happy New Year!
This time last year, I received an email from my friend, Shannon, wishing me and all of her friends a Happy New Year. No, she wasn’t absurdly late with her to-do list. She was making the point that- as a mother of school-aged kids- the time of the year when really senses newness is the beginning of the school year. She’s right, isn’t she? Read more
The Gift of Foodlove
Have you ever considered the importance of food in the experience of life’s great moments? Wedding banquets, holiday meals and church picnics draw people together, symbolize abundance and express gratitude. Last night’s episode of Little House on the Prairie (we’re going through the series with the kids) ended with a teenaged Laura Ingalls radiating womanly pride in the privilege of cooking dinner for “Pa” and the object of her yet unrequited affections, “Manly.”
Similarly, food is a universal method of outreach to people in crisis- either good or bad. The receivers may have just become parents of quadruplets, be experiencing a health crisis or be coping with the loss of a loved one. As members of their proverbial “village,” one of the first questions we ask is, “Can we bring you some meals?” Read more
Shades of Green
My dear friend and neighbor, Marija, was reunited with her beloved father in heaven last Saturday after an auto accident. She was my age. Her adoring husband and two young children are bereft. I am too.
Marija was an interior designer. She loved beauty. For her, beauty was a way to give, to honor, to share- especially with her family. It was also a passion. It was her gift. She honored that gift by using it and enjoying it. She did lots of work for her extended family, in the process sharing her gift for making peaceful spaces with the people she loved. Read more
The Modern Nomads
That’s right. We’re relocating.
Again.
For those of you who know me only through this website, I should elaborate. This will be our fourth move in 10 years. It’ll be our third relo since starting our family. The sequence goes like this: New York City to San Francisco to Connecticut to Chicago to New York City- or maybe a suburb, but I’m cheering for the city this time. Read more
Life is like a bowl of berries
Posted by Jill | June 22, 2010 | Filed under: Foodlife, Home, Ingredients
We had the most decadent breakfast Monday morning. All it really involved was washing some fruit and serving it in a bowl. But it was indulgent.
The next two weeks are the apex of berry season. Strawberries are on the outs. Raspberries and blueberries are debuting. For just a brief period of time, they’re all appearing together. This is the time to eat berries with abandon. Read more
My Own Farmer’s Market
My Farmer’s Market opened on Monday. It felt like the first day back at school. I was embarrassingly giddy. The kids were ecstatic to see what goodies would be laid out on the tables. There were a few “new kids-” the honey man has his own stall this year and there was a produce vendor I didn’t remember from last year. I ran into lots of my friends. I caught up with my farmer friends about the happenings of life during the off-season- weddings, births and natural disasters. There’s something about this that feels like a homecoming. Read more
Drinking With Your Kids
It is finally hot out- truly sweaty, summery hot. It’s the kind of hot that makes you thirsty. You know how important it is to keep yourself and your kids hydrated in this kind of weather. However, most parents turn to sugary or- just as bad- artificially sweetened drinks to whet their little whistles. Read more
So you say you don’t have time to cook…
“What would you say to someone who said they don’t have time to cook?”
This question was posed to me by a local journalist who was at my house about two weeks ago.
Before I tell you what my answer to that is, let me describe that day. It was a Monday and my shopping day. I hadn’t slept all night for the second night in a row- typical kid sickness and insomnia stuff. After doing the breakfast, dishes, get-‘em-off-to-school thing, I headed out to tackle “grocery day.” I returned home to put the refrigerated stuff away. Heading out the door to pick up Sally by noon, I listened to the message on the answering machine regarding a business “project” I’ve been involved with. There was a little crisis with that. Read more
