I don’t think I have ever been so happy to celebrate  New Year’s Eve. I have never thought that I can be so excited for the year to be over. I know things will not change overnight just because we will now be in 2021, but it feels like we are reaching some sort of a milestone.  I just hope it’s a good one. If you would have told me on January 2, 2020, as we were sitting for 9 hours in the Hong Kong airport, waiting for our next flight back home after missing our original flight, how bad the year ahead of us is going to be, I would have never believed you. After returning home from ou ..read more

This probably our son’s favorite side for Schnitzel. I also make these sometime to serve with eggs, sometimes adding bacon to them as well (for the breakfast option). Ingredients 4-5 (for a family of 3) Yukon Golden potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch slices. You can also use Russet potatoes or use potatoes without peeling them, just washing thoroughly 1 medium onion, sliced into 1/4″ slices or chopped Cooking oil of your preference, I use olive oil. You can also use butter Salt and pepper to taste Marjoram (optional) Caraway seed (optional) Steps In a large skillet over medium-low he ..read more

First time we made Pad Thai with our son was actually in the cooking class in Thailand. We’ve also made it home, so the result was not as good. Ingredients 2 tablespoons of cooking oil 5 ounces of rice noodles, slightly undercooked 1 tablespoon shallots, thinly chopped 1 tablespoon garlic, minced 3 tablespoons of Tofu, diced into small pieces, chicken meat or shrimp 1 tablespoon of sweetened pickled radish 1 chicken egg ½ – 1 tablespoon sugar ½ -1 tablespoon of fish sauce ¼ cup of garlic chives, cut into 1-inch length 3 tablespoons of Pad Thai sauce (tamarind, palm sugar, fish sauce and water ..read more

And by adventure, I really mean “adventure”. But let’s start from the beginning. Just two weeks after coming home from Rhode Island we packed up again and left the city, this time heading west, to Colorado. Our first stop was in Minneapolis, MN. Not entirely by choice, but my husband had some work meetings there and instead of flying, we decided to include the one day-stop in Minneapolis into our whole trip. While my husband was at his meetings, our son and I explored the area a bit. First stop of the day – Minnehaha Waterfalls. Just a quick 12 min drive from the hotel, the falls were basicall ..read more

After spending almost 4 months sheltering in place, distant learning for our son, cancelling all of his summer camps and all our other summer travel plans, we were able to find a place in Rhode Island for a month-long rent, packed our car and headed out. Under the normal circumstances, this would have been an easy about 2- hour flight. But these were obviously not “normal circumstances”. So we were off for an about 15-hour drive east, almost half-way across the country.  Here is how travelling during the pandemic went for us: Travel to Rhode Island: We split an almost 15-hour drive into t ..read more

This one is quick and easy, and usually my go-to when I don’t know what to cook or when I know that I will not have much time in the evening to cook something more complicated for dinner. Even though our son believes that he does not like mustard, he loves this recipe (I never told him it includes mustard). I serve it with homemade French fries and Caesar or Greek salad. Ingredients 3 Chicken Cutlets (for 3 people) 1 Cup Breadcrumbs ¼ Cup Dijon Mustard Steps: Slightly tenderize the chicken cutlets. In a bowl (I use a glass container that I can use to marinade the chicken for a bit) combine mu ..read more

This recipe is probably one of our son’s favorite. It takes a while to prepare, but it never failed with any of the kids – even the most peaky eaters who come over to our hose are usually happy with it. One of our son’s friends who comes over for sleepovers likes this recipe so much, that he asks for it for breakfast. (Note: contains milk) Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta ½ cup chopped onion ⅔ cup chopped celery ⅔ cup chopped carrot ¾ pound ground beef chuck (or you can use 1 part pork to 2 parts ..read more

This is one of my favourites: Ingredients: 1 large eggplant (1 ½ pounds) roasted 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 stalks celery, from the inner part where the stalks are more tender stalks, diced 3 large garlic cloves, minced 2 red bell peppers, diced  Salt to taste 1 pound ripe tomatoes, preferably romas, peeled, seeded and finely chopped, or 1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes (in puree) 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped pitted green olives 2 tablespoons plus a pinch of sugar 3 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar or sherry vi ..read more

Next month will mark my first year since I started my blog, finally joined Instagram, Twitter, and ventured a bit more into the world of social media beyond just my personal Facebook page. The learning curve was quite steep, especially when it came to technology – blog design, video creation, discovering a ton of apps and learning how they work and if they are right for me. As someone who has over 20 years in a corporate career, working in marketing since … well, quite some time, I thought all design, research, writing, time management and many other things would be easy. Well, some things tur ..read more

(Note: this post was written in cooperation with our son. Can we call him my guest blogger?) So, what does a travel blogger do when not traveling? Under normal circumstances, it would have been anything from planning our next trip, to driving my son to soccer games and practices, to helping with school work (well, we still do that), to going out for dinners and seeing friends, to gym workouts, or (awww) having a hair appointment. Plus about a 1000 other things we do on a regular day. But these are not normal circumstances, as I am sure we will all agree. There are so many things I miss as I pr ..read more