My friends, thank you for your kind comments on my last post, where I shared how my debit card number had been stolen and my bank account emptied with fraudulent purchases. Though our bank never opened an investigation despite our reporting the theft on Friday and faxing a letter of dispute to them, I’m happy to say there is a …

Every now and then, as I’m rushing through the New York City subways, a song titled “Wear Sunscreen” shuffles onto my iPod. It’s based on an essay titled “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young,” which was written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997. Hollywood producer Baz Luhrmann turned it …

My mom has been visiting this week, and since it’s been nearly a year since I last saw her I haven’t had much time for blogging. But as you can imagine, many scrumptious things have been appearing in my kitchen while she’s here – including the luscious apple pie pictured here. On Saturday we went horseback riding, then stopped by …

I’m something of an addict when it comes to food magazines, especially around this time of year when all the holiday themed recipes begin making an appearance. The November issue of Bon Appetit proved particularly irresistible this past Saturday afternoon, when it arrived in my mailbox filled with tempting visions of pumpkin brulee, pumpkin butterscotch pie and pumpkin trifle. …

There are many ways to love a vegetable, and for some time one of my favorite ways to appreciate the sweet potato has been in the form of sweet potato muffins. A few weeks ago I wrote about the luscious flavor of a baked sweet potato garnished with butter and river salt, and to be sure that preparation provides a …

A few times a month my husband goes paintballing, and though we have a number of things in common – a love of SciFi, an interest in cooking, among other things – paintballing is not one of them. He tried to get me into it, offering to buy me my very own Tippmann A5 paintball marker and a camouflage outfit. …