Sending kids off to college can be a big wrench for parents, even when they’ve been heading off to school on their own for some time. I would get so accustomed to our girls being home during the summer that it was hard to re-adjust to the empty house every September. My way of coping with missing them, until my husband and I got used to being a couple again, was to send packages of goodies from home. This started […]
Last year we remodeled our kitchen, after 14 years of cupboards that didn’t close, a tile floor that could never be made to look clean, and a daily view of ceramic 3-D cherubs poised in flight on the backsplash. I have nothing against cherubs in general, but cleaning the kitchen gunk out of every nook and cranny of their chubby little bodies got old after a while. The remodel was a big job; it took a long time, but the […]
—and for our dogs that day is every day. Something happens to people whose children have left the nest. They have excess time and love to lavish, but the objects of their affection have moved on, and sometimes the beneficiaries of this change in their lives are the family dogs. We’ve had four shelter dogs in our married life, and they’ve all been wonderful animals that brought joy and companionship to our family. Mac, our cranky sixteen-year-old terrier, had nearly […]
If you’re a foodie, you know all about acai bowls. They’re a frozen smoothie made of acai (pronounced ah-saw-ee) berries, assorted fresh fruit and honey, topped with more fresh fruit, coconut shavings and sometimes, granola. Acai berries come from the Amazon rainforest, and are reputed to be a powerful antioxidant. I’m not qualified to attest to the health benefits of acai, but the acai bowl is the most delicious thing I’ve had in a long time; it’s like eating a […]
A funny thing happened on the way to this recipe (if you can call it a recipe – it’s really just a “how to shell a garbanzo bean” story). I wanted to make a crispy, salty chickpea snack to go with the sangria. There are lots of recipes for chickpea snacks out there and I tried several of them with canned chickpeas. They were all… how can I put it? Lousy. Mushy, over-spiced, – nothing I would serve to a […]
