Lily – SIP, SAVOUR, & SEE

Charlie found a golden ticket in a chocolate bar, and he and his grandfather leapt with joy. It was a spectacular occasion not only for Charlie, but for the entire family. Recently one of my mother’s closest and most amazing friends noted that we all have a golden ticket. She was not referring to Charlie’s delightful surprise. Instead she was referring to that moment in life when we come to an end. When we cash the ticket in and go to the other side. Some of us know what we get for that ticket and for others it’s a surprise.…

Kids' Zone / Life

Dear Daughter…

January 10, 2021

“My Darling Daughter… my mother once told me that as you got older the joys that come with raising a child would be greater and unfortunately the worries and sorrows would as well. When she told me this I never quite understood it. I was pregnant at the time, and I worried about everything. Every flutter inside of me. Every hiccup you had, and every doctor’s appointment I went to. But like most mother’s are, my mother was (as is) right. You are now at the age where not everything in the world is full of wonder. You are getting…

Recipes

Dan’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

December 17, 2020

There are probably too many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there. Really. I mean who does not have one (or three???) that they love? There is the Nestlé Tollhouse Recipe, which I grew up on, and I also remember the giant saucer-sized cookies we would pick up from bakeries in New York City. My mother ran a gourmet food store in the 1980s, and there were endless amounts of chocolate chip cookies and mocha chip cookies. I remember sneaking into the basement of her store, going into the walk-in freezer with a spoon, and eating raw cookie dough from the…

Featured / Kids' Zone / Travel / Uncategorized

The places we love

December 13, 2020

When our daughter was born we made a promise to each other to try to keep our lives as much as the same as possible. HAHAHAHA – what the hell were we thinking? We actually thought that we could control things just a little bit because we were older – in our 40s, so we actually knew what we were doing. Well, that was not really the case. Control went out the window, but our love for travel did not, and so at 2 weeks old our daughter went to the mall to get her picture taken for her passport.…

Kids' Zone / Travel

Running away from it all

May 25, 2020

There were quiet whisper in late January about what was happening in China. In fact I remember talking about it with my husband when we were on our Christmas holiday. It was all very quiet. There was a sickness in China. And it started small. Then it got a little bigger. But it was in China. And we were not in China. We were in Austria when we first heard about it. In late January the virus slowly crept closer. There were more discussions about it at work. It started to affect travel and it made its way into the…

Kids' Zone / Travel

Third place

February 22, 2020

I remember when my nephew was young, young enough to still accept hugs from me and his mom. Young enough to be cute, and young enough to not have the worries that he now has as a soon-to-be 18 year old. He was playing soft ball and his team lost. This happens. There is almost a winner and a loser. Such is life. After the game the coach called his team up to the center of the field to accept their medals. He questioned this. “Why?” he asked. The coach gave him some stupid comment about everyone being a winner.…

Kids' Zone / Travel

Ski school

January 14, 2020

I remember skiing in the alps as a kid. We went as a family, and while I know I do not remember it all, I remember being in complete awe over the size of the mountains. I loved going up to the top of the mountain, and I thought that our ski instructor was amazing. I have been on an off the slopes since that time in the alps (decades ago…) and my last attempt at skiing ended in a horrific accident, which subsequently resulted in four knee operations. I decided after those operations that I didn’t really care about…

Travel

A tale of Shanghai

May 17, 2019

I really didn’t know what to expect. Truth be told, I had never really had a deep interest in traveling to China. I shouldn’t say that. I know I shouldn’t say that… China has an extraordinary history. It is one that seems almost impossible to fully comprehend, since it is thousands of years old and spans dozens of dynasties. Many people warned me in advance “You know, they don’t speak English there… they only speak Chinese.” This was not a problem for me. Speaking Chineses in China made sense. The idea that I would have to bend to the traditions…

Steevy’s Granola

April 12, 2019

Granola…the first time I remember making it in earnest I was in our apartment in Boston’s South End (USA) mixing together a batch for one of my closest and dearest friends, Steevy. The flavor combinations turned out to be a success, and since then I have been experimenting with various flavor and texture combinations – sweet, salty, spicy, savory, etc. To me, the perfect granola is a combination of flavors all jumbled together with a mixture of crunch and softness. It should not be overly sweet, and it should have a hint of salt. The entire bite should not be…

Uncategorized

Ready.Set.GO!

July 13, 2018

Door to door it was about 28 hours of travel. TWENTY EIGHT! That is not something to be taken lightly and especially not when you are traveling with a four-year old. But we did it, and there were no meltdowns unless you count the fact that we were turned away at the American Airlines Business Class lounge in JFK even though we had purchased business class tickets. But, that happened, and we moved on. And then we got to wake up to gorgeous sunrises over the Atlantic Ocean, the energy of South Beach, and the fresh ocean air. Yup, it…