Super Bowl Sunday Guacamole
Super Bowl Sunday, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving—the quintessential American celebrations—so perfectly spaced out in the calendar year, represent not only an event, but a season. Football fan or not, who doesn’t embrace an excuse to party on a…
French Vinaigrette
The constant quest to elevate everyday meals cannot overtake the goal of keeping recipes as simple as possible. Flavored oils fill supermarket shelves, and I’ve made many myself over the years. They provide the essential time-saving tool for marinades and…
Home
When my freshman year theology professor placed the syllabus on my desk, the heading immediately caught my eye: “The Search for Home.” It was as if Dr. John Thiel ( a brilliant man who insisted his students call him John;…
Pear Martinis
The journalist H.L. Mencken described the martini as “The only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.” Maybe that’s why the libation makes frequent appearances in Hemingway’s novels, and although it is never mentioned by name in The Great Gatsby,…
Your Story
Of the numerous tasks undertaken during the holiday season, none is more time-consuming than the annual Christmas card. Each year, I plead, beg and bribe my sons to sit still and smile in a “normal” way, peruse hundreds of templates…
Gratitude
From the year my husband Adam and I married, we always hosted Thanksgiving. While setting tables, stuffing turkeys, popping fresh cranberries in simple syrup, mashing potatoes and stealing glimpses of the the Rockettes performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade…
Welcome Winter
The fleeting pleasure of gaining an extra hour when daylight savings time ends is often replaced by the reality that darkness has descended upon us along with colder temperatures. The holidays make the remaining two months of the year fly…
Scent
Every year, on an early spring day, my windows are flung open, and the scent of the air assures me that winter has past. With the first whiff of freshly-cut grass, I envision drawers and closets filled with shorts, tanks,…
Tyler’s Potatoes
“I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them.” —Nora Ephron The potato feeds the world. First cultivated by the Incas, the Spaniards discovered the treasure…
September Snack
My trip to the farmers’ market this morning provided the inspiration for this treat. Colorful summer bouquets were displaced by buckets of mums, and the last of the peaches were set to the side to make room for an abundance…
Handwritten
I recall my penmanship books in grade school with page after page of dots sandwiched between two long black lines. I learned to write cursive between those lines. We drew lower and upper case letters—hundreds of them—under the scrutiny of…
Snack
Snack time began at 10:15 AM at St. Cecilia’s elementary school. Only the first, second and third graders partook in the brief reprieve from schoolwork. Apparently, the nuns thought the fourth- through eighth-grade students were old enough to survive until…
Lou’s Whiskey Sours
I tasted my my first cocktail at the tender age of six—a wonderful whiskey sour in a high ball glass loaded with ice cubes. My parents only drank cocktails during the summer; the rest of the year belonged to wine…
Jersey Salsa
It is time. Sweet Jersey corn and the champion of the harvest—the Jersey tomato—have arrived. Husks are torn and silk is scraped away from the cobs as they are prepped to be submerged in boiling water or roasted on the barbecue.…
Fourth of July
If you are fortunate to grow up or raise a family in Chatham, New Jersey, you know that the Fourth of July is part of the fabric of the town. Each year, on this day, families gather by eight or nine…
Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
When I was in high school, Friday and Saturday nights meant driving up and down Route 46 in New Jersey with friends deciding where to stop for late-night snacking. We’d cram into booths at Friendly’s or diners after basketball games,…
Palm Beach Bag
Courtney Chmil, creator of Palm Beach Bag, is a cool girl. And it’s not because she is an alum of my beloved Fairfield University or that she’s bright and extremely well-spoken for her mere 25-year-old self–it’s because she has an…
A Wedding
I remember, as a child, my parents leaving my sister and me in the care of our grandmother and aunt while they went off to attend weddings. The next morning, I’d find dainty white tulle bags filled with Jordon almonds…
Eugenia
I stand in awe of the gardener. While anyone can learn about gardening by reading about the Ph balance of soil, the proper fertilizer and indigenous plantings, few are granted the power to make anything “grow.” Most inspiring are the…
Easter
My childhood Easters were spent in Maryland with my six cousins. My sister and I were the youngest of the lot, and we relished being with them since they provided us with a peak into the fascinating world of teenagers.…
Springtime Halibut
I recall the first meal I cooked for my husband Adam and myself when we moved into our first home—a simple marinara over spaghetti. It remains the most memorable meal of my life. We crouched down to eat it at…
Fennel & Orange Salad
The sharing of a meal with family and friends is truly one of my greatest pleasures. What is it about conversation combined with good food and wine that binds us? I recall with fondness the many family gatherings on holidays…
Linen
My extended family visited the Amalfi coast in the summer of 2016. To say the southern Italian coastline is breathtaking just may be the greatest understatement I have ever heard. Deep blue water, rocky beaches, vines bearing bright chubby lemons,…
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
One day, when I was in college, my future husband asked me how much I’d be willing to donate to his friend, Sean if he shaved his head completely bald. Apparently, Sean needed some money, and in the mind of…
Chocolate
Miss Fitzpatrick, my seventh-grade teacher, who we endearingly referred to as “Miss Fitz,” stood about 4’10, had a mop of graying hair, a significant gap between her teeth, and more energy than all the kids in the school put together.…
Moss
Last year, Americans spent two billion dollars on Valentine’s Day flowers. That is a lot of money to spend on a gift that will not last more than a week. But still, flowers are continually bestowed at their most beautiful,…
Isabel’s Mac and Cheese
Isabel lived next door when my husband Adam and I bought our first home on quaint North Summit Avenue in Chatham, New Jersey. Isabel was friendly, yet never overt. Her clothes and jewelry were soft yet eclectic, always boasting magnificent…
Boursin
During my time as the managing editor of a local magazine, I worked closely with the art director Joe. While merging editorial and art, Joe and I became dear friends and confidants. Think Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci in The…
Friday Fish Salad
As a child, I never ate meat on Fridays. This was surely due to my parents’ Catholic upbringing when in their youth, the Catholic Church forbade meat consumption on Fridays. The reasons for this are somewhat muddled. It was most…
January Flowers
Each year, I breathe a sigh of relief on the night of December 25 and ponder how it all got done. The stress of the holidays are almost over. All that is left to do is crack open a bottle…
Fashion Forward
Every once in a while, someone takes your breath away. Twenty-three-year-old Maddi Niebanck took mine away when she published her first book, FASHION FWD How Today’s Culture Shapes Tomorrow’s Fashion, a unique look into the future of the fashion industry as…
A Christmas Carol
Each year, without fail, I read it. For the past six years, I have read it aloud with my youngest son even though he is more than capable of reading it by himself. I read it because it reminds me…
Let There Be Light
When I was growing up in the late seventies and eighties, I remember that Christmas lights meant big, pointy colorful bulbs. My father would ascend the ladder each December and attach them around the front door and windows of our…
Pine Cones
My parents built a home in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina the year I graduated from college. Having been born and raised in New Jersey, the southern way of life was a novelty, one I soon embraced. Everything moved much…
Take Charge
When I was ten years old, my parents took my sister and me to see our first Broadway play, Annie. I was so utterly excited that I pinned my hair up because I wanted to look sophisticated for my big…
Fall Carbonara
I did not grow up eating brussel sprouts. Never once were they served at any meal, at any time in my childhood or adulthood. We Italians love our broccoli rabe and string beans with tomatoes and escarole, but a brussel…
Wonderful White
I discovered the wonder of white paint right after my husband Adam and I married and moved into our first home. We purchased a 1923 stucco side-hall colonial on North Summit Avenue in Chatham, New Jersey. It was a storied…
Ivy
I have a love/hate relationship with ivy. The vine proved my nemesis in 1995 when my husband Adam and I moved into our first home. The former owners planted ivy against the house along its north side, and as the…
