This past August, my family was lucky enough to travel to Rome and Sicily, a dream vacation that checked all the boxes: Culture, coastlines, family roots, and carbs. So very many carbs! Today’s highlight reel is an attempt to capture Part 1 of the trip, three-and-a-half days in Rome. Sicily will be Part 2. If you are going to Rome,… Read more »
I wanted to take a second to tell you about something cool happening in my hood. You are looking at a photo of the Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park, located on the Hudson River, about 20 miles north of New York City. It has been the site of many things in my life: A place to take the kids for a… Read more »
Forgive the radio silence over on my end. Those of you who follow me on instagram likely know by now that we are traveling in Italy (Sicily via Rome) and eating our weight in pasta, gelato, and pizza everyday. It’s the trip of a lifetime, and I know I say that every time we travel, but what can I say?… Read more »
Hi, it’s Abby. My mom asked me to write an introduction for this post about our last-minute trip to Seattle a few weeks ago. I was invited to play in a soccer tournament there and this one was different than most because there was only one game a day, which means there was plenty of down time to explore a… Read more »
Last week, we used a Western Mass camp drop-off as an excuse to explore the Catskills (right across the MA/NY border) and had the nicest 48-hour mini vacation. Scribner’s Catskill Lodge was our home base and if you’re local, I can’t recommend it highly enough. (Ask about their mid-week discounts if you can swing mid-week.) Read of the week: How… Read more »
I am so pleased to introduce today’s guest-poster, friend and novelist Sonya Terjanian, author of, most recently, The Runaways. Her book follows the dovetailing stories of a teenage girl and a middle-age mother of two, both of whom find themselves at crossroads and decide to indulge their instincts to escape unfulfilled everyday lives. Most of the action (often harrowing, page-turning action)… Read more »
I know! This post is a long time coming! First, allow me to be the millionth person to tell you that Charleston, South Carolina is now one of the biggest restaurant destinations in America. As most of you know by now, we are New Yorkers who spend a week or two a year on Kiawah Island, about 25 miles outside… Read more »
A few weekends ago, Andy and I took a 55-minute flight from New York to Montreal to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I had never been, and we were only going for 48 hours, so we had some crucial decisions to make, especially as those decisions related to eating and drinking. There is only so much one can consume over the… Read more »
.. Where do I even begin with this post? A little over a week ago we returned from a family vacation we won’t forget any time soon: Twelve days in Hawaii. The trip had been something we’d all been fantasizing about for, well, on my end, maybe my whole life. (Or at least ever since I watched the Brady sisters… Read more »
I would say up at the top of the list of Reader FAQs, maybe after “What can I make with chicken breasts?” but before “Can you recommend a good book for my kid?” is this: “Where should I vacation with my family?” It’s an excellent question, and one we’ve tried to answer over the past seven years in travel posts here… Read more »
On vacation in South Carolina last week – one for the books I might add – the girls and I were riding our bikes over a bridge, the golden marsh stretching out for miles on both sides of us, Abby turned to me and said “What if for dinner tonight we turned pizza into a salad?” “You mean salad pizza?”… Read more »
I would say the second* most popular conversation at our dinner table lately has been: If you could have another house anywhere on earth where would it be? (The assumption being that our little hamlet in Westchester County, is everybody’s first choice. Yesss 914!) Typical answers tend to lean toward the absurdly exotic and end in “i:” Bali, Fiji, Kauai…but… Read more »
It’s funny to see “Virginia” in my Vacation Highlight Reel category, because Andy grew up there and I’ve been visiting his parents for long weekends and holidays since 1994, when we were newly dating college kids wearing Doc Martens (him) and oversized DKNY sweaters (me). But Andy’s from Northern Virginia, which, he always tells me, is really a DC suburb, and not what real… Read more »
When I mention the city of Austin, what is the first thing that comes to mind? (By mind, I of course mean mouth.) Barbecue? Brisket? Tacos? Migas? Franklin’s legendarily eternal lines? Me speaking at the amazing Texas Book Festival last month hawking my book? (A great CyberWeek price at Amazon right now BTW:)) You wouldn’t be faulted for thinking any… Read more »
Just a quickie today to make sure you all saw Bon Appetit‘s annual Best New Restaurant Issue, always good for some good vicarious adventuring. In fact, if you are like me, you probably went down the list of the 10 winners (and also the 50 nominees) and thought one thing: I need to get out more. The good news there —… Read more »
Forgive me broader readership, I’m going super local today. Many of you probably know that I live in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north and is flanked by the sailboat-dotted Long Island Sound to the East and the mighty Hudson River to the West. With the exception of college in Western Mass and a decade in… Read more »
In his Bon Appetit column this month, dessert guru and Superiority Burger founder, Brooks Headley coined a phrase that I can’t stop thinking about: Good Anxiety. “The impermanence of seasonal produce is one of the joys of cooking,” he wrote. “It gets the blood pumping. It triggers the good anxiety.” It’s exactly the sentiment I experience when I wander the… Read more »
A few weeks ago, under the category of “Nice Work if You Can Get it,” I was tasked with tracking down the best cookbooks of the spring for the Times. Those of you who made your way through that round-up (bless you, it was a lot), might remember one of the stand-outs: Tasting Rome, by Katie Parla and Kristina Gill,… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and Dinner: The Playbook More
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