All posts filed under: Culture

Food: How To Dice and Slice And Clean

My mother marvels at my style of cooking, cutting and even baking. To put it bluntly, she doesn’t understand why I do the things I do. So we talk about it of course, while I nearly slice my finger off, from all the stress of her scrutinizing my technique. But you know what? At least I’ll have many fond-ish memories of this time together in the kitchen. I need to stop and explain here for  second.  Cooking in our culture is a ritual, and each recipe is managed in the most artistic of ways to create a meal – where my mother, her mother and I’m sure her mother before – would remind the impatient generations afterwards that  ‘a woman must cook with her meal’ – which I never agreed with as a young child or a teenager. But now I get it. Although, I still prefer quick methods and easy recipes to follow.  BUT! since we are on lock down and I’ve chosen to revisit or refresh all of our cultural recipes during this …

Home Schooling – Adult Style

Since some of us have been forced to home-school our children, I think we may find ourselves sometimes cringing at some of the assignments tasked to them.  For example, me with math. You might feel the same about science, or history, or even language-whatever it may be in your part of the world. So it dawned on me, to start this series, where I share some refresher facts from around the world to seem just maybe smarter than usual to our kids. What do you think? I mean, no insult to anyone, I’m just trying to have fun here. So if you want to play along, then by all means do so, otherwise feel free to swipe left. 🙂 Here’s today’s topics of learning Hey was this fun or it’s a hard pass? {featured image full credit}

Dinner Plans and Discussions About Small Spaces

What’s for dinner is the topic of discussion every morning when I run upstairs to my mother’s house and help with breakfast. She says good morning, I say hello, and she says, so what’s for dinner tonight? I mean I know you are working from home and I don’t want to bother you, but what are the plans for dinner? and I look at my watch. 🙂 Then I go downstairs to my home-office space and search frantically for a creative meal that she would enjoy also. Because the last thing I want to hear when I ask her how dinner was, is  – oh its fine – meanwhile I’m having seconds. So, for dinner tonight – we are having  this recipe for eggplant Parmesan – did you know male eggplants are better tasting then the female since they have less seeds? I didn’t know, but learned it now.   Also technically, my eggplant Parmesan will be more of an eggplant lasagna – since I will be adding pasta-lasagna in between the eggplant and cheese layers. …

What We’re Loving This Wednesday

Last night a family member called in need of company while cooped up in a hotel room away from his home. For work naturally.  Usually he would joke and send interesting text messages, but his tone last night had me worried. So we engaged in conversation, him comparing mostly all the new ordinances being put in place for the state he lives in to the one we’ve mastered here in California – now going on six weeks or more in some places. By the end of the conversation he thanked us for being there for him and I reminded him to avoid panic, that everything will be okay. It’s a hardcore transition we are all going through, but one we need to see the good more than the bad so we can endure and come out the other end stronger than ever. Afterwards, I lay in bed, as usual reflecting on all the events that shaped the day, and I smiled, because I was more fixed on the positive, like these…

Monday Updates and A Few Lovely Things

Hello Everyone – hope you had a lovely weekend, or made it lovely in your own creative way during these difficult of times.  I have to say, I tried my best to focus only on the good over the weekend, even while the weather outside was gloomy, and the lockdown in full force, I felt the goodness of Easter by… Watching the heart-warming concert – by Andrea Bocelli   Made Easter Sunday Roast with my mother – which is both funny and sad, because I am forcing her to remember all of her old-world recipes and after the challenge of producing the final meal,  she reminds me she’d forgotten an ingredient or two.  I took several virtual tours of Italy and allowed the experience to take me away  Watched a pretty funny – cheesy rom-com on Netflix which reminded me so much of Four Weddings and  A Funeral  And for sure the winner of happiest moments  was watching  an in-home Easter egg hunt over FaceTime with loved ones currently on lock down in England  It is …

Food: Will Bake Cross-Buns For Easter Sunday

After forty minutes in line at the grocery store aiming to buy essentials, I was surprised to find a good portion of a pot roast in the meat section. Which of late has been only stocking up on ground beef, some turkey, and chicken. So I grabbed it thinking we’d have roast for Easter Sunday Dinner. Which I announced, the second I shed my outdoor clothes off in the garage, and took a hot steaming shower. It felt like a small accomplishment being able to treat the family to a special dinner – a variation of a British traditional Sunday roast I love when in England. But today – being Saturday, I will attempt to make cross-buns which I normally buy from my favorite bakery – on my way home from work on Good Friday, I stop by the bakery and grab a dozen perfectly wrapped in a cellophane bag, and tied with blue, yellow or green ribbon. Something I look forward to every year. For this year however, while we are all trying to …

Decorating Easter Eggs Is A Form of Art

This year, being the most unusual, some traditions should be improvised. To an art project for the kids and adults rather than a holiday ritual. I get it, this suggestion may offend some, but under the circumstance, consider the exercise a positive distraction.  Besides, who wouldn’t want to crack open a beautifully decorated boiled egg – I’m just saying. Article and featured image source

Food: Cooking Traditional Dinners

After seeing this video online, and watching it a million times and tearing up every single time, I realized just how thankful I am for deciding to stay with my mother before the shelter in place became the criterion for survival  – for San Francisco since the beginning of March. The beauty of our time together – is that every day she shares with me stories about her childhood, and we discuss recipes for all the wonderful cooking ritual her clan embarked on for each season. I remember them fondly and some she tells me about with her own experiences with her mother – way before I was born. Last night, we made stuffed grape leaves. I wanted to learn the process, since it is one of our traditional dishes or a version of it since so many around the world pride themselves of the dish. It didn’t turn out that well, because after we made it, she told me, we forgot a few key ingredients and steps. 🙂 That’s okay. I was fine with …

Food: Craving Tacos Again and So It Is

I left my house early this morning with the intend to replenish some of the grocery items I could not get my hands on last week, particularly toilet paper, rice of sorts, and bottled water. Even the almond milk in the refrigerator section has dwindled. At times like these, I cannot help but reflect on just  how much granted we take everything. So due to the limited supply on some things and alternatives of others, I am continuously shifting my plans for dinner. Also, I haven’t had a solid appetite either, I guess not getting out much and burning any energy.  But today, after my hunt for necessities, I craved food, in particular Tacos, so here’s a cool recipe I am going to try tonight. I’ve never considered pineapple in Tacos.  Also, I won’t use a crock pot. Just my thing. Enjoy! INGREDIENTS start something like this 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, thighs, or a pork shoulder/butt 1/2 cup pineapple juice 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce 1/3 cup honey   {more} Featured image and recipe full credit On another note – I …

Culture: I Watched A French Film and It Helped

In my efforts to remain calm and positive as the captain of my ship here in San Francisco, I decided to open a bottle of red and watch a film that would,for a few hours, take me far away –  like Europe,  and in particular the French wine region. Now, if you are not familiar with French films, they tend to run long – sometimes over two hours, to include every detail and then some. Which I love about – film makers outside of the U.S. – They do away with too much editing, to keep true to the story. The other aspect of French films, is the English translation – which is the only thing I can relate to – of their beautiful language, metaphors  and to some extend wisdom. If you listen to the narrative throughout a film carefully, you might just pick up on it. This aspect keeps me nostalgic because I’d like to think I was a Frenchwoman in some former life, and therefore able to relate. Er…perhaps it could be …