Since being back in America, I have had to deal with exposure to things that seemed foreign to me after my years in China. For example, soap in the bathrooms, toilet paper in the bathrooms, dishwashers, clothes dryers, plain yogurt, and brown rice, to name a few. Readjustment hasn’t been all that hard in most [...]
When I lived in China, situations would arise when I would tell people I was Jewish. Once, I was at a restaurant for an official school dinner when we were served a chicken-brothy soup with dumplings in it that was strikingly similar to matzoh ball soup. My assessment somehow made it to the ears of [...]
One of the little rituals John and I have is that every Sunday is Pasta Night. This started back when we were living in Shanghai; Sunday was my longest and most grueling teaching day, and he would have a comforting, carb-y pasta dinner ready when I got home. I actually hadn’t eaten Italian-style pasta (except [...]
One might think that after 5 weeks of non-stop travel, and not the resort kind, that one would be ready to get home and get back into the groove, back to the familiarity and the friends and beds and bathrooms of established quality. Well one might be wrong. There. I said it. WRONG. Because actually, [...]
Every year for Thanksgiving, my family and I headed out to the desert for a potluck lunch with my grandparents’ friends and their families. Though the location changed a few times, we were always out in the desert, eating turkey and hiking and playing volleyball. Every year one of my grandmother’s good friends, Susan, would [...]
If anyone in my life has influenced my cooking, it would be my paternal grandmother, Nana. Both my mother and father are good cooks, but with the triple whammy of an ultra-picky daughter, working, and, you know, raising two kids, they didn’t have a lot of time to devote to culinary endeavors until I was [...]
Western/American holidays in China have a totally different meaning than they do at ‘home.’ Having a Christmas party or a Thanksgiving dinner is, at least for me, more about nostalgia and comfort than about the actual holiday. I didn’t have a big party at my house so that we could all think about the Pilgrims. [...]
Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel: Absolutely totally butter-less. Unfortunately, not mess-less. Every silver lining has a cloud. I know Thanksgiving is over for everyone, but mine is on Saturday, so drool over all this and keep it in mind for next year. Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel From Food and Wine ½ recipe [...]