Cooking
Fitness
Health
Training: To Failure
Strength Training to Failure As I mentioned last week, I’ve started a new weight training program with a trainer. I’ve long known that strength training is a pretty large gap in my fitness routine, something that I do half-heartedly and without any real knowledge of what I’m doing. I know that working with heavier […] Read More
Empanadas
Baked Chicken Empanadas I really like empanadas. I like them so much that last year, while in London, I walked a mile from my conference center to Borough Market in cold and sleet to grab some empanadas for lunch. But I’ve struggled to find an empanada filling that makes me happy. Chicken and cheese: problem […] Read More
Training: Trying Something New
Weight Training After months of being wishy-washy about what my next fitness thing would be, I finally committed to something: I signed up for a month with a personal trainer, working exclusively with weight training. It’s exactly what I need, at least on paper. Better still, it’s less than a mile away from my house. […] Read More
Hoagie Dip? Really?
Homemade Hoagie Dip I grew up in Philadelphia. I’ve eaten more than my share of high-fat, high-carb and high-calorie foods. But I had never, ever in my life stumbled across hoagie dip. But then, there I was at a birthday party at my father’s house in South Jersey (suburban Philadelphia) and was presented with this […] Read More
Creamy Papaya Seed Dressing
Papaya Seed Dressing and Marinade When you go to Hawaii in the winter, they practically give the papayas away. No, really. At 7/$2.00, or about $0.28 each, they’re far and away the cheapest thing on the island. We ate them morning, noon and night. After a while, I got the idea of making papaya dressing. […] Read More
Challah French Toast with Cherry Sauce
Making the Best French Toast Even Better I was going to just post the recipe for the cherry sauce, figuring that French toast recipes are universal and everyone does the same thing. A quick scan of The Internets comes to one screaming conclusion: I’ve been doing my French toast wrong all along. Evidently the rest […] Read More
“There’s Only One Way Out”
Goodbye, Nana In 2011, my Nana — then 93 years old — survived a bout with e coli. She had, understandably, been weakened by the experience, and needed to move to a nursing home rather than return to her assisted living apartment. A few weeks after her arrival, she was visited for a psych consult. She […] Read More
Eating in Hawaii
Eat Affordably Outside the Resorts This post comes to you from Hawaii. We’re camped out in a two bedroom, two bath, full kitchen condo on the Big Island that costs less than a basic hotel room at the resorts and doesn’t have the parking fees, resort fees or exorbitant meal costs. We arrived on the […] Read More
Chipotle Powder
My Secret Ingredient A few of you have noticed that a lot of my recipes use chipotle powder. I have a confession to make: it goes in even more stuff than what I publish here. Have you ever cooked something, tasted it and just thought it was a bit flat? Salt, pepper, vinegar… depending on […] Read More
Pre-Grieving
Grieving for the Living I haven’t posted as much as usual lately. For the past six weeks or so, I’ve been feeling lethargic, unmotivated and just plain sad. My 95-year-old Nana is dying. Now of course, there’s the logical part of me that says, “She’s 95! She’s had a great run. You’re so lucky to have […] Read More