I didn’t grow up eating ethnic food. Exotic meals included taco nights, with crispy taco shells filled with seasoned ground beef and shredded lettuce and cheddar cheese, or a Bisquick-crust pizza, again with seasoned ground beef, tomato sauce and shredded cheese. My Mom was–and is–a great home cook, but when I was growing up we ate platters of fried pork chops with mushroom gravy, chicken and rice casseroles and well-done beef roasts with potatoes and carrots. It was the 80s after all.
We arrived in Tel Aviv mid-morning, bleary-eyed and a little wobbly from lack of sleep, since Theo was the only one of the eight of us to sleep on the flight from Toronto. We were also hungry and some of us in need of a coffee. But I had forgotten that we were arriving on…
If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ll already be familiar with my yearly reflections and the setting of intentions for the year ahead. In one form or another, it’s a thoughtful, meditative process I’ve repeated each year for the better part of thirty-five years, since I received my first red leather-bound diary at…
The first few years Elie and I were together, we didn’t exchange Christmas gifts, guided by a feeling that we already have so much. But, Christmas morning always felt like something was missing–not the getting, but the joy of giving. Giving a gift to someone you love is a joyful process the whole way through,…
I lost my temper yesterday, and I had extreme mom guilt last night. To be honest, I’m a pretty patient person, and I don’t lose my cool very often. Almost never, actually. Being an older mom helps with patience, I think. I know I’m generally a more patient person at 43 than I was a…
Every night, after bath and pajamas and the wrangling that is brushing a willful two-and-a-half year old’s teeth, Theo and I go into his room, dim the lights and get ready for sleep. I sit down in the rocking chair and he squeezes in beside me, holding two books. I wrap my arms around him…
This is the second recipe in a four-part series of posts inspired by a meal Elie and I shared in northern Israel in 2012. Six years later, the details of the meal remain sharp in my memory. Here was the first recipe in the series.
If I ever get a chance to publish a cookbook, these are the kinds of recipes you would find there. Fairly simple, not too fussy, vegetable-heavy, but homey and delicious. Healthy in a nourishing, real foods kind of way. Comfort food, but not the mac-and-cheese kind of comfort food (not that there’s anything wrong with…
Five years ago today, I married the person I admire most in this world. One day, I will write down our love story. But for today, there are photographs. Photographs of the day we committed ourselves to each other, surrounded by our family and dear friends who sent us into our life together with so…
The Pacific Northwest is covered in a haze of smoke right now, which seems to be a new reality for late summer weather. The loss of lives and homes are heartbreaking, and the environmental implications and impact are alarming. For people with asthma or health conditions, it’s harmful. For us, it’s just a nuisance. And…
