We are sick.  Coughs and sneezes, and everything nice in between.  In my family, at the first sign of trouble  we make a store run for a chicken and make strong chicken broth.  Until very recently, chicken broth as a cure-all home made remedy was more of a family tradition to me, rather a quirky […]

Don’t you just love it when everything comes together and works out as if it were planned?  That’s how I felt today when (as usual at the end of the week) I was stuck with only a handful of things left in the fridge and not a whole lot of time and energy to put […]

Last year I had to limit vegetable gardening in anticipation of the interstate move.  I knew that my garden boxes will need to turn into flower beds mid summer, so I only planted lettuces, sorrel, and garden peas and didn’t bother maintaining them.  The weather switched from very cold to very hot without any transition, […]

If I had to describe The Great Holiday Season with one word that would sum it all, I’d say “pressure”. Pressure, lots of it. Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard about how commercialized Christmas has become lately, but the truth is, for many of us this might be the only chance in the whole year to […]

While I enjoy exploring new dishes, I don’t always happily adopt new ingredients. Especially when everyone tells me I must try them.  In fact, I am often feeling the opposite: if everyone tells you this is the new wonder food, it’s probably not that good. Such was my relationship with a few you-must-eat things, namely […]

My husband has started a new job. He’s a natural charmer, people instantly like him. The thing one might find annoying about him is his constant bragging about his wife. He’d go on for hours telling people about my countless virtues, my exotic Soviet upbringing, my Jewish family, my eclectic career, and so on and […]

Just like we start out Italian eating with pasta and pizza, anyone who grew up in Soviet Union, would tell you that Georgian food is Chicken Tabaka and Kharcho – a hearty meat based soup with tomato paste. Any food establishment – from government mandated greasy spoon stolovaya to fancy restaurants would serve these staples. […]