This is it… the weekend before the most exciting day of the year (for food lovers) Thanksgiving. The horn of plenty, the celebration of the harvest, clinking glasses with family, Macy’s Day parades, football and all such indulgences. Take time to enjoy the weekend. If you’ve planned well you don’t have to stress about coming…
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.
Come Winter…
Come winter, there is something other than a chill in the air. Morning light has magic. The invisible becomes visible. We breathe like dragons, wisps and puffs of exhales dance before our faces. Our frozen vehicle slowly begins to thaw beneath us just as we pull into school. After drop off, I sit at the…
Thanksgiving Prep: Pie Crusts & Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce and pie crusts are the first things I make for Thanksgiving. I always make the same cranberry sauce from my Classic Canadian Cooking book from Elizabeth Baird. I carry this cookbook with me wherever I go. When I was little I had my “pink Mickey”, which was my blanket that brought me comfort. …
4 Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving: Family, friends and avoiding the frenzy
We have hosted Thanksgiving for many years now. We don’t have the largest space, we have family and friends who are all fabulous cooks, and our house is anything but pristinely decorated. We host because I enjoy hosting, my husband tolerates it, and we’d much rather host than be stuck in traffic to NY both…
The Weekend Guide: Harvard Art Museums, PoKémon & More
Here are a few things to keep you entertained this weekend. Get inspired to cook for Thanksgiving and meet Wilson Farm‘s new executive chef Raymond Ost, former chef/owner of Sandrine’s Bistro in Harvard Square. Chef Ost will be offering samples of his turkey roulade with sausage apple stuffing, butternut squash soufflés, croque madame sandwiches, and…
Home For the Holidays: Wayfair, SEO, and Gift Tags
I don’t tend to go to conferences or blog workshops for several reasons. One is time, another is money, and the third is ROI on both time and money. I am a researcher and a do-er but unless there is engagement and interaction, I don’t tend to learn enough for a talk or conference to…
Lunch at Menotomy Grill & Tavern
Long gone are the days of a video store in every neighbourhood and in this particular spot in Arlington, on the Cambridge line, an old video store has been replaced with a big, modern, metropolitan Tavern with touches of an old vibe but the comfort, food and style of a modern restaurant. Today, I sat…
5 Reasons to Visit The Boston Christmas Festival
This weekend is the annual Boston Christmas Festival where over 300 hundred artisans and artists gather under one roof. Part of the Boston Christmas Festival is the Gingerbread House Competition that my children and I have been lucky enough to participate in as judges. Although the seeing what local chefs and gingerbread architects come up…
Tickets to the Ballet, Theatre & Symphony
As a culture, we are do not place the arts very high up. I grew up in a Canadian household with a British father, my grandfather sang Opera and played the violin, although he was a jeweler by profession. I was also lucky to be raised in a university city where access to the arts…
Boston Ballet’s Swan Lake: Would Be A Tragedy To Miss
Boston Ballet’s Swan Lake is magical. As a child I used to have these beautifully illustrated Russian fairy tales. The were full of tiny details some that you noticed and others that you just felt as they whisked you away into the story. Robert Perdziola’s renderings of the costumes and set design have that same…
Fall is Here and Winter Will Follow: Step it Up with Shoes
I am sitting at my desk on this sunny fall day with a pair of warmly lined rain boots. We are going for a test drive today and I think I’m in love with them. When it comes to shoes, I’m easy. I’ve been wearing shoes for quite a while now. I know what I…
What’s The Opposite of Tiny Bubbles?
I don’t like to think about Chanukah or Christmas until Thanksgiving has come and gone, but the reality of it is that the catalogues are dropping into the house faster than the bees did outside at the first frost. The other truth of the matter is that I do not do holiday shopping during…
Leah's Life: Pearls and Oysters 