I’ve been thinking a lot about clutter and white space lately (physical, mental, and time-based) and what’s really necessary in our lives. Sometimes it feels like a fight against mainstream culture not to buy into consumerism, ultra-connectedness, keeping up with the Joneses. I remember as a teenager, working at Crate & Barrel, brides registering...
Shrimp and Fava Beans A Four-Course Meal in 30 Minutes or Less: {Secrets of Easy Elegance}
I’m striving for more peace and elegance in my life. And there are days when I have the time to craft an incredible meal that takes hours to prepare, when I’ve carefully selected each ingredient by hand with purpose, when I revel in the chopping and stirring as a meditative practice, when I sit...
Sunday Morning Biscuits
Sunday morning. I am up hours before the rest of my family wakes. I feed the dog, get the newspaper, make the coffee. I sit for a blissful hour or more, sipping hot black coffee and reading the front page section of The New York Times cover to cover. I get up because I decide...
My Chic Habits
What does it mean to live well? Stylishly? Chic? I assume the answer is different for everyone, but I have a few opinions for myself, and recently, I’ve been trying to cultivate them a bit more. First, I participated in a free online “challenge” that was all about living your best life. The challenges...
Sunday Supper
I neglected to take pictures of the food. That should give you some indication of how much of a success our first Summer Sunday Supper was — for a food blogger (even a part-time one like myself) to forget to take pictures of the food, she must be pretty well distracted. And I was....
Doing Disney
In less than a week, we’re taking my almost-five-year-old to Disney World, and I’m having very mixed feelings about it. First, let me say this was totally my idea. One hundred percent. About a year ago, I thought how cool it would be to take her to Disney for her fifth birthday — right...
Birthday Dining and Shenanigans
My friends and family know me pretty well. And that’s evidenced by how we spent my birthday. Up first: My mom and my friend Kuvy (owner of RootPR) conspired to plan to take us all out to dinner at Tim Payne’s new restaurant, Farmer Girl in Lyons. Go ahead, be jealous: That’s my girl...
How I’m Eating Now
Eating is such a daily thing. It’s so constant. My dad used to joke that when my mom’s family gets together, we’re all planning the next meal even as we’re eating this one! What’s not constant is my approach to food. It’s mutable, variable — sometimes in the space of as little as an hour, or even...
Digital Detox
A lot has changed for me since I started this blog. When I started this blog four years ago, I had a new baby, I had just quit the 9–5 workforce, and I was trying to make it as a freelance writer and blogger. I was obsessed with going green and eating organic both...
How Do You Handle Halloween?
Emily and I take our daughters to the same music class on Thursday afternoons, and a couple of weeks ago, the teacher was encouraging the kids to find all the C notes on the piano keyboard. She passed out five M&Ms to each kid and told them to put a candy on each C...