I have been a fan of Portugal’s most well known fortified wine for a very long time. Port was really my first introduction to “spirits” and I didn’t venture beyond it for a long time because I was perfectly content. When I was in university, I lived in Montreal’s “little Portugal” and became a…
Author: City Living (Boston)
I am a writer and cook. I write about city living, travel, food, the arts and family. I raise my family in Cambridge & Boston and share tips for throwing cocktail parties, packing lunches, having fun on the weekend without going broke or losing your sanity.
The Trouble With Letting Go
I’m a pretty sensitive person and it’s taken me years to build up the callouses life requires. It’s odd, in some ways I’m really good at letting things roll off my back. Yet, for many things that I know I should not hold on to I clench in my fist and it takes me a…
Growing Season is Here: Now Just Add Cooking
Just as the farms are starting to grow some delicious things for us to eat here in New England (or to be fair the greenhouses are doing a lot of the work right now), the kids’ schedules are going crazy. From end of year events, special meetings, concerts, recitals and ball games, planning for dinner…
Not a Photographer Nor a Critic
When I chose my degree, based on a careful consideration that a) I might decide to be a lawyer and b) I was in a big school and wanted to be in a small school, I found myself studying Philosophy at McGill. In retrospect, I think I chose well. Thinking about life, ethics and meaning…
5 Memorial Day Weekend Options In and Around Boston
This Memorial Day Weekend should be sunny and warm. Here are a few ways to celebrate and commemorate those who have put themselves in harms way and continue to do so in the name of our country. For our family Memorial Day always includes our local parade, a time to reconnect with friends and our…
A Patio is Naked Without Cocktails: Dori on a Tuesday (Cocktail Recipe)
This is a post sponsored by Wayfair.com where you cannot buy the ingredients for this cocktail but where you can buy all the fun accessories that you need to make the drink in, pour the drink from, sip the drink on, and kick back and rest your feet on. As always, all opinions are my…
Thrill of Contact: Boston Ballet’s Season Finishes with Agility, Grace and Guffaws
This year, Boston Ballet gave their mixed bill programs titles to highlight a common thread among each of the varied works on the bill. These titles gave you a sense of what to expect, but allowed the programs to span the decades and step in and out of different styles of music, dance, costumes, and choreographic…
Vine Brook Tavern: A Lexington Revival
In it’s heyday Vinny Testa’s was a hot spot, a suburban gathering hall, one of the few places in town you could catch up with neighbors and enjoy a casual meal. Those were big shoes to fill and after Vinny Testa’s lost it’s luster Lexington sort of lost it’s dining hall. Of course they weren’t…
You’ve Got A Fremd in Me: Choreographer Jeffrey Cirio Seamlessly Premieres in Thrill of Contact
Thrill of Contact is Boston Ballet‘s season finale at the Boston Opera House and Principal Dancer Jeffrey Cirio’s début on the big bill as a choreographer. Cirio’s fremd is sandwiched between George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and the program doesn’t miss a beat. t’s a bit like watching someone…
Shop Chestnut Hill Square: One Stop for Sanity Sake
I live in Cambridge but shop in Chestnut Hill. I don’t know when it started. I’m guessing it had something to do with working over at Solomon Schechter Day School and going to the gym at Wellbridge (when it used to be in Newton and when I worked out daily -those were the days!). Even…
Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum: Lilacs, Magnolias, Moss and More
Sunday, tomorrow, is Mother’s Day and the Arnold Arboretum‘s famous Lilac Sunday. The thing about nature is that, not unlike my mother, myself and my daughter, it does things it’s own way. There is not much you can do to steer it in another direction. So, Lilac Sunday can be a bit of a hit…
Women & Whiskey: Whisky and Women
I often joke that I like an old man’s drink. I have an affinity for the taste of whiskey and in fact I grew up under the atmosphere of it with the Seagram’s factory in my backyard. I have memories of a sweet earthy scent that would sit heavily in the air almost suffocating to…
Leah's Life: Pearls and Oysters 