photo: Favia & Alessa Taverna Consider this my formal, public apology to the Catholic school nuns, who for years impressed upon me the importance of learning not only the exact science subjects, but also to write well, cook well, stitch and knit well. Abilities that—aside from writing—I thought of as more or less useless but have become extremely helpful in this pandemic time. If the nuns saw me now I’d like to believe they would be proud. Regrettably, hard as they tried, the nuns were unsuccessful in getting me to learn to play a musical instrument, but if our current situation exten ..read more

I want you to notice the smell of fresh laundry, the way the sheet unfolds in your hands. Notice the ease of making the bed, so small but perfect  for his tiny body. I want you to notice  that you knew this back then, when you left everything everyone said was important. You knew when he looked at you for the first time that all this caring, unfolding, tucking and rearing would be the privilege of a lifetime. I want you to notice  that time is passing and everything is different but so much the same, when you find yourself in the middle of a cookie date teaching him phonemics disguised ..read more

photo: Tanya Val I have said it before and I will say it again, I am surrounded by the best, smartest, most courageous, creative, kind women in this state. It is my joy to spend my days working alongside them, and it is my pleasure to introduce you to the most beautiful plant shop, That Feeling Co., the baby of my friend Tanya Val and her fiancé Carson. That Feeling Co. is opening its doors tomorrow, Thursday January 30th (1721 E Dowling Road), and you must come see the beauty Tanya and Carson have created. While you’re at it, have a cup of their espresso or kombucha, or both, what the he ..read more

I have four new cook books since Christmas, a staggering amount considering that I am very particular when it comes to cook books. I like them to read like prose, to tell me a story, and teach me something.  If I am going to take the time to find the right cheese, or get a certain brand of kosher salt, I want to feel like the author and I are friends, like we are conspiring to create, rather than them telling me what to do. Directions are for the lost, and I am certainly not lost -at least not in my kitchen- so what I want out of a cookbook is a companion, someone who wrote a guide with a l ..read more

photo: Elephant Journal            When the word ‘delight’ became my word for 2019 I was sure it would to be a year to remember, and it was, just not in the way I thought it would. Last year was, without a doubt, one of the hardest years I remember living as an adult; no matter where I tried to find delight, I couldn’t. The word became a source of discomfort and even shame. I asked God so many times why on earth he had given it to me, all I saw around me were things to stress about. But before we go deeper into 2019, we have to go back ten years, as it was no coincidence that at the sa ..read more

A ..read more

A ..read more