Focused at Fifty

Every month, my office sends out a department newsletter over email. There are several sections such as anniversaries, birthdays, get-to-know new employers, co-worker trivia, and quotes. I began reading the co-worker trivia section to try and figure out who it was. The first sentence was "the first thing I notice about people is their confidence." Wow, I thought, I do that too! I always am drawn to other confident people! Next, the person "preferred cats over dogs, and summer over winter." Hmmm, I thought, me too. I have two cats and I am SO OVER this winter! After that, the person had written that they liked Asian food, the color royal blue, movies with happy endings, and mint chocolate chip ice cream. You know, I said to myself, I could easily be friends with this person! I have so much in common with them. Now I also like the color grey and coffee ice cream but royal blue and mint chocolate chip ice cream are ultimately at the top of my list! So I checked a...

"Voile" Pasta Measurer by Alessi Throughout the years, I have acquired several favorite cooking tools as gifts or through my own discoveries. I am always on the lookout for cool kitchen gadgets. Mom's favorite kitchen tool was the wooden spoon. When we stepped out of line, she would grab it and threaten to paddle us with it. She was kidding/half serious most of the time but I think I remember once or twice when I got the spoon to my butt for being a bad kid. Mom swore by wooden kitchen tools and to this day, I have plenty in my kitchen as well. The first favorite kitchen tool is the "Voile" Alessi Pasta Measurer. Alessi is an incredible Italian design company. Check out more of their wares at www.alessi.com . It was a gift from my father and stepmom Martha. Each circle in the pasta measurer is for a different amount of pasta. It was truly a perfect gift from the two of them as it encompassed Martha's passion for the kitchen and cooking, and ...

The Ingredients! Can a Jewish Mother make a good, possibly great quick marinara? You bet she can! Now in the 70s and 80s, my Mom was more of a jarred tomato sauce type of gal. There wasn't too many option available at the local Pathmark supermarket. She did mix it up though, adding her own onions, garlic, peppers, and spices. She often browned ground beef and added it for meat sauce. That's what I grew up with and was always proud to call it my Mom's sauce. But later, I was so happy to discover this recipe of hers while going through her recipe box. Now if you don't have an entire afternoon to boil your own tomatoes, peel them down, separate the seeds and water, and then blend them, this is a great quick marinara you can make within an hour. It comes out so much better than your average jarred sauce. It tastes fresher and you have the satisfaction of knowing that YOU made it and it's healthier for you too.  You can thank my Mom. MOM's QUICK MAR...

Here are a couple stories as a child that involve some car issues. As I have stated before, I was a pretty odd (maybe more normal than I realize) child.  All I know is that I gave my parents a lot of grey hairs. No wonder Mom did the 80's frosting kit every other week.  Anecdote #1 I don't know why I wanted to do it but I did. I remember when I was about 5 years old,   my family was driving back from my grandparents' house in Willingboro, NJ on Rt 295 in South Jersey on afternoon. Car seats, what were they? We were all over the back seat. I don't know what possessed me to do it, perhaps too much sesame candy at my Nana's, but I rolled down the back seat window of our blue rambler station wagon while Dad barreled down the highway at 50 MPH. For some reason, I wanted to see the tire spinning so I started to climb out the back seat. My sister was preoccupied joking around with my brother and wasn't paying attention to me. My Mom saw me attempt to climb out a...

 Recent pic of the bull fighting ring, it's still there! There are no crazy drunken bar stories in this post. My crazy drunken bar stories all happened during the 90's in Philly. As I've said before, another post, another time. As a child in the early 80's, I remember traveling with my family across the border from El Paso, Texas to Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. We just drove in, no questions asked; no passports or government ID cards were needed to enter and return. It was a hot dry dusty August day. I remember driving down the main thoroughfare with no real destination in mind. It was just the thrilling idea back then of going into Mexico.  I remember looking out the dirty, dust covered windows of our sky blue Pontiac Phoenix and seeing a bull fighting stadium in the distance. We ended up at a shopping mall and walked around inside. It was nearly deserted, dark and foreboding. I was nervous. I remember finding it peculiar that half ...

I hadn't done a family recipe in awhile, so I got out the trusty old recipe box and picked one out that I hadn't made before. This is an easy stove top recipe for stewed chicken. It comes out real juicy. I remember Nana and then Mom making it during the 70s and 80s.  I found quite a number of variations of potted or stewed chicken online, many from the 50s and 60s. My Nana's recipe is decidedly from that time of simple, yet good cooking. It has European origins and as my wise sister pointed out, was probably used as a cost savings dish. The recipe was passed down to my Mom without any set amounts. Just add as much ingredients as you think would taste good!  You'll see with the recipe below. And I just realized that much of Mom and Nana's cooking included the essential chopped onion, sliced carrots, and sliced celery. One may think that this is a bit plebeian or common but in fact, it is the basis for any good solid recipe involving meat ...

I was driving to work the other day down Route 78 and some huge ass tractor trailer started every so slowly nudging into my lane. I leaned on the horn while screaming bloody murder above my 80's mix CD, "WHAT THE HELL!" Yes, I drowned out the Bangles while flipping off the truck next to me, spewing my Dunkin' Donuts coffee all over the Camry dashboard. OMG I am so now middle-aged! Luckily, the rest of the commute into work was uneventful. But it allowed me to remember past near misses and some minor accidents that I had during my high school years. (UM ... Dad, this is the part where you may want to stop reading. AND I LOVE YOU!) Like the time I was driving with one of my high school best friends, Angie, and I came around a turn in a corn field. I was driving our fire engine red Nissan Sentra and took the turn too fast, going over a small turn marker into the field. She screamed, I screamed. We survived the plunge into the corn field. Luckily no damage to the car,...