I cook because I love to eat. I garden because I love to cook.
In the 1970s and 80s, the Camp Onas Pioneer Trip lasted four days, consisting of two parts. It started with two days hiking on the Appalachian trail ending at the Delaware Water Gap. With full backpacks carrying sleeping bags, water, food, and other gear, 15 …
Several weeks ago, out of nowhere, Bob Dylan’s song, “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” got wedged in my head. I couldn’t get it out. On repeat, it played internally for weeks on end. Even though it’s a great song, this earworm …
Most of my memories from Bodines, a tiny village in central Pennsylvania about 20 miles north of Williamsport, are only fleeting: talk of rattlesnakes in the field behind the house after the hay was harvested; walking on railroad tracks abandoned after Hurricane Agnes and its …
At some point during the Passover Seder – the spring meal celebrating the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt – a piece of matzo is broken in half and hidden. The children in attendance search for this afikomen, the finder receiving a prize. Seder guests …
The dilemma of taking salads to work or school for lunch is how to carry the dressing without it becoming a tragic mess. It turns out to be even more complicated when your child throws their salad into a backpack for extra jostling, even if …
When my children Jacob and Ariana were little, they used to spend a good amount of time hanging out in our bed. They would come on in the morning if we didn’t have to move too fast, especially on weekends. They might watch a little …
When I was a kid at Camp Onas many years ago, to change things up, we used to have theme weekends. The counselors would pick a movie, TV show, or an era – the 1950s or 1960s for example – and all the activities would …
I must have been traumatized as a kid. Or perhaps it was Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, which Marci and I suffered through when we lived in St. Thomas in the mid-1990s. I am extreme when it comes to preparations for a disruptive event, especially when …
When Jacob and Ariana were graduating from high school and moving away to attend college, I was contemplating my mortality. Top among my concerns was the thought that if I died, my children would no longer be able to enjoy many of the dishes they …
After several months of living in a cramped studio apartment in St. Thomas, Marci and I moved to a first floor apartment that was part of the Harmer Family’s home. It was a great improvement: much larger, a decent size kitchen, nice dining area, and …
