Some people think March Madness is an athletic event.  I think it’s a state of mind, altered severely by onset of spring weather.  I, too, got on this “I smell the spring is coming, I can almost touch it” madness wagon, and decided to join the crowd and celebrate…  Since I don’t follow college basketball […]

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, […]

Every time I pass perfectly flat triangular brisket slabs in a store,  my inner Jew wakes up from a deep sleep and starts with the questions. “When are you gonna start cooking like a good Jewish girl?”  “Where are the Gefilte Fish and Latkes?”  “Why aren’t you making Mandlech for your chicken soup any more, […]

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 […]

Sweet summers of my childhood… Windows wide open day and night, you can see and hear everyone in our courtyard.  Tidy neighbor lady has already washed a truckload of family laundry, and bright white sheets are stretched on ropes for drying outside our kitchen window… Life is good, life is lazy, and I can smell what everyone’s […]

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 […]