Phil, the historian’s son, could be said to be a man of the past, constantly accumulating knowledge and artifacts from earlier times. As a teacher, I not only plan for the future, I shape it. But, Ben? Ben is all in on the present. Sure, he remembers any good meal or time he ever had…
My Associate
The past week has been rough. First, I got sick and stayed in bed coughing, staring, and dripping for five days. Two days in, Phil succumbed. According to our tests, it wasn’t Covid, but it sure wasn’t pleasant either. While I was at the height of misery, Ben happened to be home due to weather,…
Church Pew
The yuletide season is upon us and I should tell you a lovely Christmas story. Instead, I’ll tell you what could be a chapter in a book called Ben’s Church Antics. It must have been about ten years ago that our family put on a spontaneous Christmas pageant of sorts, and it is time to…
Old Seoul
If you are waiting to see how the whole cannoli thing from last week worked out, skip to the end. If, however, you are interested in Korean, Mexican, Hawaiian, and Mennonite cultural appropriation (can one appropriate her own culture?), then you’d best read straight through. This week, Ben asked for Taco Tuesday. I confirmed that…
Cannoli Crime and Punishment – A guessing game for our readers
We did not have cannolis for dessert this week. In fact, I’m pretty sure that nobody in the family has had a cannoli for years. Why? We have a family secret: a tale of cannoli shame and regret. If you were to hear three cannoli tales, could you ferret out the real one? Tale #1…
Meach
When Ben was very young, just learning to speak, he created his own contraction to use when presented with any culinary choice. The word is “meach” and it means “some of each.” This year, our Thanksgiving holiday embodied the spirit of meach. As usual, people began arriving late Wednesday afternoon. Ben and I made chicken…
Thanksgiving Makeover? Join the Club (Sandwich)
Ben is all about Thanksgiving food. Can’t get enough. I thought it might be fun, as we anticipate the upcoming holiday, to see how many traditional Thanksgiving foods we could reimagine in a club sandwich. That was the easy part. Making the meal relatively nutritious was the real challenge. Thanksgiving staples we included: √ turkey…
What to eat when you’re Hungary? Chicken Paprikash!
This week, we went with Hungarian food, full-immersion style. The recipes for Chicken Paprikash, Hungarian Dumplings, and Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream came right out of Christopher Kimball’s November-December 2022 issue of Milk Street Magazine. https://www.177milkstreet.com/magazine Our chicken paprikash didn’t look quite like the pictures in the magazine, but it was very good, especially with…
Hearty Pennsylvania Dutch Stock
About 15 years ago, we were interested in buying a small sofa that Phil found on Craig’s List. Since the location was close to where I work, I took our mini-van and a fistful of dollars so I could examine it after work and make an offer if I liked the looks of it. I…
Oc-two-ber
We live in unprecedented times. Never before has our country seen such division and polarization. Vicious hatred and lies find an audience in public forums, and when opinions are this intensely divided, can violence be far behind? Still, the debate rages on. Some cling fervently to their view that summer is best, while others work…