ham and leek yumminess

May 21, 2019

i love to ask my mama friends (not the super-bouldery, roast their own kale chips and make their own crackers out of soybeans and flax-paste mamas, but the ones who eat approachable things i can identify) what their easy “go-to” dinners are. i mean REALLY easy, like five or so ingredients and twenty minutes preparation for those nights when i am driving the soccer carpool and practice is late or i just feel like doing anything other than spending a lot of time cooking. i think every mama needs some cheats and i get tired of mine. so that is how i came to learn about this ham and leek dish from my girlfriend anna, over ten years ago when we were living in amsterdam and coping with toddlers.

a mother's fear

May 14, 2019

i am a natural born worrier. i worry about parking in underground lots where unsavory characters might grab me. i worry about food that’s past the expiration date. i worry about running out of toilet paper or my favorite dish soap. i worry about hurting people’s feelings. i worry about accidentally hitting an unseen child in a busy parking lot with my big car. i worry about someone hitting one of my children in a busy parking lot. i worry about finding my car in a big parking lot when i come out of the store, especially when i was on the phone when i went in and wasn’t paying attention. and most especially, when i am in a hurry and don’t have time to wander around the lot, pushing my heavy cart and clicking my car keys hoping to see some lights flash. i worry a lot about parking lots, i am realizing.

my beautiful mother

May 07, 2019

i was ten years old when my mother took me to see judy chicago’s "dinner party” in san francisco. chicago’s traveling art installation was born of the idea that women should be invited to a last supper and celebrated for their great and varied accomplishments at a level on par with how men have been lauded since time immemorial. there were three components of the exhibit: a series of entryway banners, the actual triangular dinner table with a place setting for thirty-nine super impressive women and the triangular tiles that made up the heritage floor, inscribed in gold with the names of nine hundred and ninety-eight additional notable women… there were meant to be nine hundred and ninety-nine, but one man was mistakenly included because an earlier historian had identified him as a female greek sculptor from the 400’s BC.

playroom update

April 30, 2019 in family, residential interior

as much as i have admonished my children against growing up and getting older, they continue to do it anyway. i miss their dimpled hands and big round cheeks and chiclet teeth and pudgy toes and wobbly walks and uninhibited dances. despite my threats, their limbs have elongated, their knuckle dimples have disappeared, their baby teeth have fallen out and they orange justice and hype, instead of hokey pokey. there ARE some benefits… they are potty trained, they can clean their own noses, they dress themselves and they can even fold their laundry and put it away (when threatened)… i HATE dealing with laundry.

puffin

April 21, 2019 in family, holiday

in fourth grade i had a little bunny named puffin. he had this super soft, fluffy, long hair that i would brush with a special metal comb to get the tangles out. i kept all of the fur that came out in the comb, intending to sew a little pillow and stuff it with puffin’s hair (strange?) he never seemed to mind these grooming sessions… he just sat still in my lap while i styled him, like he was at sally hershberger’s. unlike a lot of bunnies, he wasn’t afraid of people and enjoyed being held and snuggled up. he never “said” as much (he was pretty quiet), but i could FEEL how much he loved me… we were that connected, like eliot and E.T.

passover moon cake

April 20, 2019 in family, holiday

we were still in amsterdam over passover this year, so we had a belated seder dinner this weekend. seders are a big deal to prepare… there’s all of the components of the seder plate, which depending on where you live, can be difficult to come by. in new york, all of the markets suddenly dedicate at least two aisles to passover related groceries in the week leading up to the holiday. in amsterdam, you would never know passover is happening. i had to roast a drumstick our first year living there because i couldn’t make the butcher understand the lamb shank. also, there is no matzo meal, only matzo crackers. in order to make matzo ball soup, i had to first grind up the crackers myself with a rolling pin. it was like little house on the jewish prairie in my amsterdam apartment. horseradish, also, is not easy to find. for that i would have to go to what we referred to as the "expat black market.” it’s a tiny shop on leidesgracht that caters to homesick american and british expats. the prices are outrageous, but it’s often the only place to get a crucial ingredient… a can of libby’s, libby’s, libby’s pumpkin, for example, is typically about ten euros around thanksgiving! so for a shiksa raising my children jewish (the faith of their father), seders can be a challenge, especially when we were living in the netherlands.

green smoothies

April 16, 2019 in recipe, holiday

the summer after my divorce, i went on the requisite hippie retreat at the chopra center. so many people had told me i should be meditating, something i had never tried, and i figured deepak’s team would be well qualified to teach me. the retreat was also going to focus on general health and spiritual well being, which i thought might be helpful as i was quite frayed inside and out. i WAS worried about the vegan food they were meant to serve, but the retreat was located at la costa hotel and i figured i could sneak out and order a club sandwich at the bar, if there was too much kale.

modern dining

April 09, 2019 in art, dining room, residential interior

this bright, refreshing dining room is composed of a collection of simple geometrics: the clean, rectangular oak table surrounded by timeless, circular wishbone chairs; the framed senagalese hexagon-motif textile, designed to include both positive and negative stars; the half dome pendant light; the antique oval mirror and the ceramic vessels in a variety of rounded and cylindrical silhouettes. a quiet palette of warm, light woods and crisp whites is punctuated by the graphic black framed textile art. in all, the space is an inviting, eclectic mix of linear and spherical, vintage and modern, dark and light.

elite

April 02, 2019 in exercise

i was completely delighted when i went to bar this weekend to be presented with the ELITE lavender socks because i have attended 500+ bar classes. (you cannot buy these socks, you can only earn them!) i LOVE to get prizes and it happens so rarely that i get really excited. i also got to sign my name on a big poster along with the other “elites” … i tried to write really BIG and legibly so my fellow exercisers will know what i have accomplished! i have been going to bar for almost the whole time we’ve lived in boulder (so if i did the math correctly, it’s not that impressive as i seem to only average about 1.3 classes a week.) but considering that i don’t really like to exercise at all and i have been taking bar consistently (if infrequently) for SEVEN years in a row (which is much more than i have done any other physical activity besides chasing after my children… i’ve gone running four times, spin class once - AWFUL! pilates once, orange theory never) it is amazing and a true testament to the lovely, hilarious teachers. boulder’s bar method crew keep it funny and light, while pushing all of us (not just the elites, like me) to obtain the coveted high rise peach bum. it’s true that i think most of the teachers are on to my strategies for making things easier and i seem to be getting more corrections than ever, but i adore them in spite of the extra attention to my cheats. and perhaps it won’t take me quite as long to complete the next 500 classes… THANK YOU ladies of boulder bar.

chicken pot pie

March 19, 2019

i love costco. i love the giant shopping carts, the anticipation of wondering what new, unexpected treasures they might offer and the costco hotdog, which i have at the beginning of every costco visit. unlike the ikea hotdog, which is more of a little snack, the costco hotdog is very big and qualifies as a meal. so i time my costco visits to coincide with lunch.

banana bread

March 12, 2019 in family, recipe

if there is one baked good that epitomized my childhood, it would be banana bread. none of us liked bananas with even the smallest brown dots so my mother made it on the regular, protecting us from the grisly fate of biting into bruised, mushy bananas with long strings of whatever those gross strips are that seem to appear on older bananas. we liked our bananas firm and safely tinged in green. luckily, older bananas make the best bread. we think her original recipe came from sunset magazine, but all the copies i have are in her handwriting, so that has not been confirmed.

WWJD? and i don't mean jesus, i mean jane...

March 05, 2019 in family, travel

the fall before last, two new activities coincided for me… i started dating again and i joined a jane austen book club. the first activity was pretty nerve wracking. i had tried to sign up for the bumble app many months before, but you can only use it on your phone and the writing was so small that i couldn’t see it and i closed it down. i had to get reading glasses a couple of years ago and i am still very upset about it. my entire family has worn glasses for decades and i was a bit vain about my unique 20/20 vision. i used to be able to see everything so clearly, even street signs blocks away - that was really helpful with my directional challenges - until i noticed that my texts were fuzzy in the mornings. i thought it was just because i am always tired (SLEEPING is something else i was really good at until the last few years and i am also pretty upset about that!) until i realized that my texts were fuzzy in the middle of the day too. so i finally went to an eye doctor (a place i had NEVER been before) and got checked. sure enough, i needed readers. i bought my first pair at the doctor’s office and they were expensive, which was a bummer. and they did not last long, as i fall asleep reading most evenings and they got mashed one night when i rolled over on them. now i just get them at the walgreens… between hank sneaking them into the backyard to gnaw on and me smashing them in my sleep (i frequently wake up with a dent in my forehead now, which is annoying when i have an early meeting because it typically takes a few hours to go away) they are pretty temporary possessions.

blizzard

February 26, 2019 in family

normally, i am all for a big snow blizzard that forces me and mine to stay inside, snuggle up and make a pan of lasagne or a beef stew. i am really good at reading and watching movies and spending time on the sofa. but this winter there have been so MANY blizzards that they are starting to disrupt my life (not to mention my floors, which i seem to be mopping continuously. i LOVE to vacuum, but mopping makes me feel like cinderella before she married prince charming.) during the week of my dining room leak and repair, there were THREE blizzards that made it very difficult for the ceiling man to come and work. two weeks ago i had to abandon all of my errands in denver because it started snowing so hard i instinctively drove right back to boulder like a homing pigeon. and this past weekend, i was meant to take my son to california to celebrate a friend’s bar mitzvah when it started snowing in the late afternoon. it seemed like it was just going to be a dusting and even though we got a couple of messages that our flight was delayed, we weren’t flapped and headed out for DIA. usually it takes about forty minutes to get to the airport, but on friday we were in the car for TWO HOURS. the closer we got, the slower we went and the harder the snow fell. we felt like the donner party, except we were in an SUV with “snow mode” and we weren’t eating each other… but still, it was stressful. by the time we parked, our flight wasn’t leaving until 10:30 pm (a four hour delay) and by the time we got through security, our flight wasn’t supposed to take off until 1:25 am. of course, it is bananas to depart at that hour so we tried to rebook for early the next morning. nothing was available. since all of the airport hotels were full, we were forced to make our way back in the driving snow… our useless misadventure had taken up FIVE hours.

brand loyalty

February 19, 2019 in family

when i moved to new york in my early twenties, one of the first things i did was head to the market to stock my cupboards. i didn’t imagine making big meals in my holly hobbie sized kitchen, but i always need to be able to bake. i began at the closest d’agostino’s with my rolling granny cart and started shopping. to my great frustration, they did not have C&H sugar, only dominos. i am very brand loyal so i did not buy brown or white sugar that day. over the next few weeks, i went to nearly every d’ag and gristedes on the island of manhattan in search of my sugar. i even tried the fancy balducci’s and citarellas. finally, someone explained to me that there was no california & hawaii sugar in new york and if i wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, i was going to have to work with dominos. i was crushed. it is generally not easy for me to change course… when i like something, i stick with it. i have been using the same deodorant (secret, powder fresh), brushing with the same toothpaste (crest with the sparkles, not the stripes) and moisturizing with the same lotion (eucerin intensive care) for decades. (PLEASE do not tell me if any of these brands are building up weird electrodes or minerals in me - i have had enough changes lately!)

surefire roast chicken

February 12, 2019 in family, recipe

i am not a natural cook. my mother can look in the fridge, pull out a few things and create something yummy with what’s there, but i have to follow a recipe. i can only go a little rogue after i’ve made something about a bazillion times… which is what happened with the barefoot contessa’s perfect roast chicken. i started making this chicken around fifteen years ago when we were living in san francisco. it felt pretty grown up to me to pull a chicken out of the oven, rather than out of a whole foods plastic container when throwing a dinner party. and it makes your house smell cozy and amazing as well. i never did manage to learn the gravy part of the recipe - the only one in my family who can make a proper gravy is my GG - the rest of us have to cheat with packets or gravy kits when she’s not around. in reviewing barefoot’s recipe, i realize that i’ve changed it quite a bit… i switched out the thyme for rosemary and added carrots and green beans and potatoes to the onions so you end up with a whole pan of roasted vegetables and a truly one pan meal. but whether you follow barefoot exactly or try it my way, this chicken is surefire and what i always make when i have someone new coming to dinner and don’t want to mess up.

my amazon coat

February 06, 2019 in family, hank

in early december i got an email from my girlfriend in la with the subject line, “have you heard about this coat?” she attached an article from the strategist that detailed the popularity of the orolay amazon coat among moms at pick up on the upper west side. it was sold out, of course, because it is the coziest, most comfortable, best priced coat in the world. i stalked amazon until it came back on offer and it was well worth the wait. i LOVE my amazon coat! it has tons of pockets that are straight up and down so that stuff doesn’t slip out of them AND they all have zippers, just in case you are carrying around something super special. the hood is lined with fuzzy, warm stuff and the inside is a bright, cheery orange. you can get it in black, navy and army green (putty too, but that colorway is not nice.) i was so delighted with my coat that i planned all my christmas travel outfits around it (no dresses, just boots and jeans because the amazon coat is too casual for a party dress.) i had to wear it on the plane because it is too bulky to put in a suitcase, but i pulled that snuggly hood up and had the best airplane nap of all time, despite the fact that i was sitting between my two children. the hood also seems to be noise cancelling. so i thoroughly enjoyed the holidays with my amazon coat and then my life became a series of shit fuck events that snowballed into my nearly falling completely apart… but praise jesus, i had my amazon coat. i just crawled into that coat and added my pizzeria pom pom hat and i have hardly taken them off (even indoors) for the last three weeks. because overlaying all of these horrendous events has been planning my son’s bar mitzvah. i am so PROUD of my son for his dedication and earnest commitment to learning, but planning a bar mitzvah (especially for a shiksa mama) is no small endeavor and despite all of my hyper-organized lists and spreadsheets, i still felt desperately behind three weeks out. following are the events that sent me diving into the safety of my amazon coat:

best of houzz 2019 service award

January 28, 2019

WOW! i won a prize AGAIN!…BEST OF HOUZZ 2019 SERVICE thank you, again, to my new and continued clients and colleagues who have supported me in this wonderful design adventure. i feel so lucky i just may go buy some lottery tickets or mine for gold or fly to vegas. x0x0x

divisadero

January 22, 2019

the “stick style” san francisco victorians were built in the late 19th century and served as an architectural transition from gothic to queen anne victorians. stick houses utilized the most innovative design concepts and building technologies of the era. the style defining “stickwork” or decorative trims were created by the first steam-powered wood-working tools and were arranged in elaborate, repeating, geometric patterns. other hallmarks of the style include heightened gables and squared off bay windows. unlike the gothic and queen anne victorian genres, stick style architecture was wholly american, both fresh and modern for the time.

a holiday review

January 01, 2019

in the late 90’s, my boyfriend and i came home to my chelsea apartment a bit tipsy. there was an awful smell in the hallway of my building and i lamented the fact that i was forced to hold my breath or pass out from exposure. in typical “only in new york” style, where more desirable housing options often escalated relationships, my boyfriend suggested i move in with him. we did not discuss it further that night, but in the morning i asked him if his offer was serious.

a christmas miracle

December 18, 2018 in hank, holiday, photography, family

every year, we send out a holiday card featuring the kids smiling and laughing together. they DO laugh and smile together pretty frequently, but hardly ever when we are shooting these photos.

“FEO, FEO” lucy (when she had no teeth) yelled downstairs in alarm a few years ago, “the christmas clothes are out… i fink we have to do the card today!” then a series of loud groans as they commiserated together.