City Living (Boston)

Start the Year Off With a Little Help From “Your Friends”

Perhaps you’re planning to organize your kitchen cabinets this year. Maybe, you want to start your children’s scrapbooks this year. You might be commiting yourself to a weekly workout at the gym with a personal trainer this year. Whatever your plans are, you might need to take some time from somewhere to put it towards…

Celebrating Not Just Surviving New Year’s Eve With Young Children

Staying up for midnight on New Year’s Eve was never a problem for me. We celebrated at parties with friends. We went out to First Night in Boston, and Stamford, CT. We stayed in for a fabulous home cooked dinner with friends in Maine. We had large celebrations and small parties. Then, I married an early…

Hot in 2008: Have a Happy Hulu Holiday

If you haven’t heard of it yet, you will be hearing about it soon. Hulu.com is a a two year old website that, hosts hit TV shows, movies and clips all for free. What does this have to do with your holidays and food? For those of you who didn’t grow up in the kitchen…

Hearth ‘n Kettle Celebrates the Holidays in Traditional New England Style

While we were on Cape Cod for the weekend, we had the pleasure of good, simple, family meals. TheHearth ‘n Kettle is a local Cape Cod chain of restaurants that I had known only in name until recently. I’m not a snob, but I’ve definitely been spoiled when it comes to food. I grew up…

2008 Year in Review: A Year of Seasonal Produce in New England

It’s no secret that our growing season in the northeast is a short one. New England has its last frost some time around the end of April by the coast and early June in the mountains and first frost can be any time from early September to the end of October. This year many crops were…

2008 Year in Review: Food, Poverty, Hunger, Waste and the One Dollar Diet Project

You’ve seen the books and the television shows: Frommer’s Australia from $50 a day among others and Rachel Ray’s $40 a day on the Food Network. It turns out that, according to NetAid, more than 1 billion people (that’s 1 in 6 people around the world) live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is defined as living on…

The Winter Pantry: Surviving a New England Winter

I am not a weather junkie like my husband so I don’t usually plan for a snow storm or bad weather. I try to check the weather periodically so my children are dressed properly for school/daycare, but even then I am not so consistent. So what do I do to avoid dirty looks from my…

The First Night of Chanukah: A Latke Recipe or Two

I made these latkes last year and have had a special request to serve them again. I am not a huge fan of variations on a theme, except perhaps in classical music, because I love tradition and tend to be a bit of a purist. So to get around this, I usually prepare the classics…

Last Minute Gift Ideas: Forgot the Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker

I can say it is officially crunch time. As we walk to the car around the puddles, there are little tiny ridges of crunchy white snowy ice. School is having it’s all-school sing and pot-luck. In a couple days the children will be home for the holidays whatever they may be in your home. Some…

Weekly Holiday Bump: Cupcakes, Latkes, Giving, and Santa Claus

Kickass Cupcakes is holding a cupcake cocktail tastings all week. COCKTAIL CUPCAKE HAPPY HOURS! December 15th, 16th & 17th from 5pm-7pm Free tastings of mini cupcakes with cocktail inspired flavors On Sunday December 21st from 1pm-5pm they will host a Kids holiday cupcake decorating day. The cost is $5 and includes 2 plain cupcakes and all…