A Journey Into Time As I crack open the window in the pentagon shaped living room, the room that feels like a cabin on a ship perched high in the trees above the street, I feel cold, but no wind. There is a soft, periwinkle …
A Christmas Eve Tradition Christmas Eve in Westchester, 1985. It was our last Christmas in the only home I had ever known in life and childhood, the big California style house on the hill, the one with modern additions thanks to my Croatian born father’s …
A Christmas Failure The Christmas Season came too quickly for me. We lost our 17 year old feline child (grandmother), and, through loved ones and workplaces, I got sick the weekend before Christmas. It was all happening too fast–missing connections with friends, buying gifts last …
The Irish inspired, Spiced Rum Carrot Cake makes a two or three layer cake full of fresh grated carrots made incredibly moist by the addition of applesauce. A little rum and spice add another layer of flavor, while the spiced cream cheese frosting flows like …
Croatian American Holiday Baking I did not grow up with Medenjaci. My mother, an avid baker, who filled full notebooks of ONLY Christmas recipes, often made gingerbread cookies, ginger spice biscuits, and homemade gingerbread houses, with the help of my brother and me. She was …
Mysterious Origins I never understood where it came from. My maternal grandfather was Croatian, from Sinj, on the Dalmatian coast. I’ve written plenty about him, recently in the Inquisitive Eater here. He was, at least on many levels, not typically American, even though he came …
Cranberry Madness I never liked cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving growing up. My mother often used the typical cranberry in a can to go along with turkey on non-Thanksgiving-holidays. On Thanksgiving itself, she made her own cranberry sauce, but it was a more natural mirror image …
On Raglan Road On Raglan Road, in DECEMBER…I sat on the soft, blue upholstered seats of the Ballsbridge bus from central Dublin. I picked it up across the street from the Trinity College wall facing, Westmoreland Street? The one that connected the main way of …
Empire Comforts What I love about Turkish comfort food is that it is usually deceptively simple with its ingredients and method. Yet, Turkish food history is a complex one. Coming from Central Asia, and running at times concurrently with the Western Roman Empire, Turkish food …
Rush Hour As I slam my car door shut, I look down the hilly street towards the waters off Bay Ridge, which I can only just see if I arch my head over from the balcony. Just as when I lived in Red Hook, the …