Real Life

In most houses, the Thanksgiving gathering stretches for hours. It’s not an eat-and-run kind of a day, you’re all in it for the long haul. And while adults have an acquired ability to make their own entertainment (catching up with Uncle Ivan, tossing around a football, helping in the kitchen) kids sometimes need a little more direction to fill those hours before the turkey hits the table. In our house, that’s where the Craft Table comes into play. Every year there are at least half a dozen kids at our Thanksgiving, and their ages might range from 1 to 18.   …

It’s been a couple of weeks since my older son Jack headed off to school a plane ride away. And it’s been a couple of weeks of lovely, concerned people asking about how he likes it so far, and then leaning in and asking, “And how are you doing?” I don’t quite know how to answer this. I usually say something about being just so busy with work and other things, and make a joke about being a master at denial, and that visiting weekend is mere weeks away. I certainly know that after flying home I flung myself into a …

I have three things to say before I begin: I am not a vet. I am not a vet. Did I mention that I am not a vet? I have no medical authority, whatsoever. But I do have the most wonderful 8 1/2 year old epileptic dog, who needs to take 12 pills a day, 15 if you count the fact that the big ones have to be broken in half, which is fair, since it is essentially 15 times that a pill has to get into my dog’s mouth ad down his throat. I have three more things to …

2017 was a bit of a mixed bag, to be blunt. Plenty of things to be happy and grateful about, from work to family to just being renewedly appreciative for some basics, like a warm bed and electricity. But boy oh boy, life isn’t all Instagram filters and cheesecake with raspberry sauce dripping both daintily — yet realistically — over the edge. I have to first address the chronic psychic pain that many of us are feeling terms of the state of the world and our country, and the relentless, incredulous despair that our President is actually our President. My …

My pantry was a total disaster. A black hole. A closet of chaos. Despite periodic efforts to reclaim the area, my pantry closet looked like an eclectic and confusing supermarket had exploded, and someone swept up a large portion of the miscellaneous goods and thrown them onto shelves with no rhyme or reason. Yes, the flour and sugar shared a shelf (most of the time), but they were nestled next to Halloween sprinkles, lentils, and spelt. Tuna fish sat next to blackberry jam. A jar of truffled mushroom spread from a trip to Italy in 2016 nestled up near ramen …

The weekly meal service and food pantry at Union Baptist Church is not one of the biggest around. It’s not one of the oldest. It’s certainly not one of the most modern. But it’s something special, in large part because it was conceived of and still run by a vibrant 92-year old woman, Miss Olivia High. If you arrive at the pantry and kitchen, which is tucked into the basement of the church in the Bedford- Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, just before the meal service starts, you should get to hear a freeform sermon from one of the church leaders, …