In a couple of days, Gates turns one. Yesterday with family and friends we celebrated Gates' birthday. (Some photos and more details here tomorrow and throughout the week.) It got me thinking of my hopes and dreams for Gates.     Unlike many when I was pregnant I didn't write notes or letters to Gates. It wasn't because I didn't (and don't) have hope and dreams for her. It was because I didn't (and don't) want to choose her path for her.     As parents we only want the best for our children. We want to protect them from every harm, and rush to their sides if they do get hurt. But, as parents, it's our job not to shield our children, to put aside our natural instincts and let them explore on their own. It's our job to help them develop skills for coping with the outside world.   This means our children won't always be our friends. They may or may not inherit our strengths and dreams, our fears and phobias. It is certain that they won't be...

Until recently braising used to scare me. I'm not sure exactly why, it's actually a pretty simple process that yields moist, flavorful meats. Boneless short ribs were on special at the market, so I decided I'd braise them for a mid-week treat. The meal was such a hit last week, that I'll be making it again tonight.     Here's how this meal does with my three criteria: budget friendly, super easy to make, and flavorful. 2.5 out of 3, a definite keeper. Effort: Medium. This isn't really a set it and forget it type of meal. You need to turn the meat partway through cooking and double-check liquid levels. I've just recently started braising meats (for some reason, I'd been afraid of the technique), so running out of liquid and drying out the meat has happened. It didn't happen with this dish. Cost: $13.46 for 2.5 servings, or $5.38 a person. With my family's appetite, one and a half pounds of meat, translated into two and a half servings, the ha...

I don't know about you, but with a small closet and creative solutions for organizing the overflow, I forget what I own. In some cases, I've purchased something similar to what I already owned. To keep wardrobe sprawl under control, at least once a year (typically twice) I go through my wardrobe with a critical eye asking three questions.     Before I begin appraising my wardrobe, I do two things. First, I make sure everything is back from the dry cleaners and that nothing is in the laundry. Then, I empty out my closet as well as any other spaces where I have clothes stored into a large well-lit space, aka our living room.     Phase One: Pull items that no longer fit or are in need of repair. For this phase you'll want to have some paper grocery bags (or boxes) on hand. Label each bag or box: Trade/Sell, Clothing Swap, Goodwill, Repair. This will make sorting much easier.     Now, take everything you own and group items by type: sweaters, pants, shirt...

Last year when Passover started we were just leaving the hospital with Gates . Something unexpected that The Bay Area Jewish Healing Center did was give us Passover in an Envelope.     Those first days home were a blur, we were completely overwhelmed and not able to attend a seder or much less have our own. It was nice in a quiet moment to open our envelope. Children from Emanu-el Mitzvah Corps, Hadassah Goldstein's ECE students, the students of Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, and Sheila Marx's ECE students decorated envelopes and filled them with a Haggadah, a seder plate, a covering for the matzot, and electric candles.     Have you celebrated Passover unconventionally?   Ciao Bella! Eden!   Credits: All layouts designed by and images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.

A mutual love of food is ingrained in cubes's and my relationship. In fact, had it not been for a desire to explore restaurants in the city, we may never have started dating at all. March 25, 2009, kicked off a standing Wednesday night dinner date tradition. One that we recently restarted on Tuesday nights.     Food was so important to us that for our wedding each table number was a restaurant we had dined at. Each table tent included a brief paragraph explaining the significance of the restaurant and two or three snapshots of us and friends or family at the place, food we'd eaten, or photos of the place. When creating our seating chart, I tried to match people with a restaurant we'd eaten at with them. To encourage people to socialize with other tables during the reception, I created a crossword puzzle that featured the restaurants. The clues were in the descriptions on the various table tents. The table tents also allowed people who lived outside San Francisco to get mo...

Our days and nights seem to be filled with obligations. In December, after juggling family, a job, this blog, and a three and a half hour round trip commute, I decided to focus on what was important and jump . (To make it all work, I'd cut sleeping to at most four hours a night and begun drinking over a pot of coffee a day!) I'm still busy, but now I have time to sit back and reflect or change venue when I get writer's block.     On Friday, Marketing Profs, shared a 2012 New York Times Op Ed piece, " The 'Busy' Trap ." The basic premix is that we do this to ourselves. Why? Because we're afraid of being insignificant.   "It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed. ... They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence. ... Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously ...

Next weekend we'll be celebrating Gates' first birthday with family and friends. While she probably won't remember the party, I wanted to choose a theme that fits what she's into. For the decorations, I got inspiration from her Tuppertoys.     When I started designing the bunting for Gates' birthday, I didn't like the look of the letters with animal cutouts that I'd originally considered. Instead, I chose one of my favorite fonts, Rockwell , "a geometric slab serif design, a strong display face for headlines and posters." As I was going to hang the banner from the railing above our staircase, the letters needed to be legible from a distance of about three feet.     Supplies and Tools I wanted the overall project to be inexpensive and relatively simple to create. If you want to give your banner a little sparkle, you can use glitter glue to add a little glitz.   I had all of the supplies for this project on hand: 18 sheets of card stock (9 if y...

I love Jewish cooking. I don't know if this is because most dishes are dairy-free (if you're kosher, you don't eat dairy and meat together at the same meal and wait between eating them) or if because Jewish foods are comfort foods. Either way I love Jewish cooking. Passover though throws a couple of wrenches into cooking for me. Some of my regular goto dairy substitutes, such as Earth Balance, are off limits.     A little overwhelmed planning your Passover menu? Bon Appetit has eleven from modern to traditional. Fine Cooking has a traditional Passover menu complete with recipes, grocery list, and meal preparation notes. When sourcing your ingredients, a good resource to figure out which ones are ok or not for Passover is OU Kosher's website . They cover what's ok for Passover and which ingredients while ok for Passover are off limits if you're Ashkenazi ( Kitniyot List ).     I've rounded up some recipes that I'm considering for Passover. They...

Ever just stood in your kitchen wondering what to cook? Staring into a stocked fridge and not seeing a recipe flash before your eyes? Opening and closing cabinets and not finding a solid jumping off point?   Stocking your pantry with some basics will help reduce this paralysis. (Last summer I talked about how I combined Farmer's Market picks with pantry items to restart our tradition of cooking together in the kitchen.) To get you started, here are some tips from James A. Beard as well as my basic pantry inventory.     When it comes to food the only way to save money is to plan ahead. Planning doesn't have to mean boring. In How To Eat Better For Less Money , James A. Beard states " [m]y underlying purpose in this book is to help you develop imagination and interest in your cooking without straining your budget. There is a flavorful, rewarding approach to inexpensive eating, but you have to work at it. ... [This book] presents an approach to food and cooking that wil...

A few weeks ago, friends visiting Turkey surprised us with a delivery of two unidentified spice blends . Immediately I started thinking about what I could make with the spices.     Our dinner at Lot 7 gave me some ideas. I got some more ideas from The Taste and Master Chef. (I don't know about you, but, with the exception of Hell's Kitchen, TV cooking competitions get me fired up to get in the kitchen.) Last week I decided I was going to go for it when I stumbled across an amazing deal on lamb chops.     Have you ever cooked with unknown spices?   Before I could start cooking, I needed to figure out the flavor profile for the dish. That meant I needed to get some idea of what was in the spice blend. From visual inspection, I was sure the mix contained paprika and one or both of cayenne pepper and chili powder. Smelling the spice blend I was able to determine that cumin and mint were present.   To get a better idea of the other spices in the blend, I...

Today marks the official first day of Spring. Here in the Bay Area, signs have been visible for almost a month now. Where many have still been shoveling snow, we've been able to wear skirts without tights and picnic in the park without jackets.     When I'm feeling blue and in need of a pick me up, I like to bring fresh flowers inside. Last fall and over the winter, I added orchids to rooms as their blooms can last for months versus just a week or so. At the moment, two of my three orchid plants have died. The third, bloomless, is growing nicely, abandoned and forgotten in our laundry room.   I'm going to celebrate Spring by taking a walk around the neighborhood with Gates and seeing if we can capture a rainbow of blooms with my camera.   How do you celebrate Spring?   Top Six Blooms from 2011 Seen Today Flowers Series If signs of Spring aren't yet visible in your neighborhood, here are five of the most popular blooms I've photographed from around the Bay ...

Try as I might, I can't be happy with a comfortable life. For some, this is "The Good Life" but not for me. All my life I've pushed the limits. Tried new things. Felt butterflies in my stomach and gone for it, whatever it was. My greatest fear? I fear not feeling butterflies in my stomach. I fear leading a life firmly within my comfort zone.     Last week, PJ of A Girl Named PJ asked her readers, to share their fears after she shared hers. Her fear confession was inspired by a Fear Confessions series she had stumbled across on Paper Fort Studio. Over the weekend, while cubes was at Pycon and I was hanging out with Gates, I pondered her question: what are you afraid of?   First a silly fear that I've never told anyone and that frequently has me waking up in dread in the middle of the night. I fear being in a head on collision with Gates in the car. I've never been in head on collision. I have though been rear ended a couple of times, both times while stop...

I have a confession. I'm addicted to TV cooking competitions. Top Chef. Master Chef. The Taste. Specifically, any show where a contestant imagines a gastronomic experience and then takes that dream and presents it in reality on a plate.     Near the end of each competition, no one can argue that the contestants aren't talented. But, talent alone doesn't win the competition. A broad skill set helps especially when you don't know what the challenges will be, for example making three different soufflés in an hour. The key to winning? One's comfort with risk and luck.   Last season's finale of Master Chef came down to two contestants. One presented a menu that flowed from one comfort food to another and played on her strengths. She took no risks. Well, other than plating street foods, she took no risks. Her competitor went big, trying lobster for the first time. Had he not presented a half cooked lobster who knows if the outcome would have been different.   How ...

Determining how to mindfully consume food is more challenging than you might think. When you've never looked at food as a budget item, how do you where to place your upper bound once you've eliminated (or reduced) delivery and eating out? Too low a number leaves you unsatisfied and hungry. Too high a number doesn't challenge you to really think about what you're putting on your plate and how it gets there.     If you're taking the HaveNotWant challenge for Lent , we're halfway through. Congratulations! Have you found it harder or easier than you thought?   Originally mindful consumption didn't cover food, as everyone needs to eat. After looking at our monthly food bills, mostly made up of delivery charges, I realized this was shortsighted and expanded my personal HaveNotWant challenge. And, discovered it's harder than it seems. I'm pretty sure everyone would agree that the convenience of delivery is a want not a need. But, is organic a want, not a...

Food has always been an integral part of cubes's and my relationship. With the arrival of Gates, we've been more likely to order in than make the effort to cook. Last week marked the end of that trend.     Tallying up delivery expenses and considering the number of times orders have been short or flat out wrong changed my thinking. (Participating in a HavenotWant Challenge and reading And Then We Saved also has me hyper-focused on eliminating unnecessary expenses.) I kicked off our renewed focus on home cooking with a mini-pantry challenge, whipping up a three-bean soup, chicken with capers and pine nut pasta, and an enchilada bake. When I went grocery shopping on Monday, I had a budget and a general idea of what we'd be eating for the week.   One of the proteins I picked up was ground sirloin. I typically make one of three things with it: tacos, a Bolognese sauce with spaghetti or angel hair pasts, or a "chili." This week I wanted to try something different,...

I don't think anyone has ever exclaimed I have too much closet space or too many cabinets. Americans have a lot of stuff. According to the Self Storage Association , one in 10 US households currently rent a self storage unit, a number that has increased approximately 65 percent from one in 17 in the last 15 years.     How do you know when your stuff might be taking over? When it starts to pile up consistently in one or more places.   For us, our entry hall had become a dumping ground for shoes and jackets. Every night when we returned home with Gates, we were finding it easier to leave our shoes where we stepped out of them and our jackets and scarfs simply draped over the railing. We intended to put everything away after Gates went to bed but somehow never got to it. With an inquisitive toddler, this meant we were spending a lot of time grabbing of shoes out of her hands before they went into her mouth.     Before you start thinking of getting a storage u...

It's that time again. Time for Gates' eleventh month portrait and a quick rundown of what she's been up to.     Time has always passed quickly for me, but now with Gates, it feels like we're hurtling through the universe at full warp. I can't believe that this time last year, cubes and I had just wrapped up our Mindfulness-based Childbirth and Parenting Program and were getting ready for Gates to arrive. Boy has our life changed.   This month Gates had posing down to a science, giving me a variety of different faces in our short session. (The keys to getting Gates to relax are not to stand directly behind the camera set up and to make funny faces and sounds.) Out of total eighteen photos, there were four we really loved. Additional photos from the session can be found on Flickr .     The lowlight of February was Gates' third cold, the second of 2013. Throughout it, she was in good spirits, continuing to play and to learn. She's fascinated by zippers, li...

I returned from Alt full of energy and excitement, armed with a to do list for blog and for business over a mile long. Just over five weeks later, many to dos remain, and I'm finding myself playing armchair quarterback. "If this ..." or "If that ..." Sound similar?     Why bring this up? Because, when you're not feeling well, it's easy to get bogged down in negativity. I found myself looking at our expenses, our still packed moving boxes, my unfinished to do list from Alt, and so on, and beating myself up. "If I hadn't ..."   How do you push past tough weeks?   I had to stop myself. There's nothing I can do about what's past. I can take steps to change current behaviors, but I can't undo the past. Then today's saying came to me: "With each day, begin again." It's nothing revolutionary. In fact, it's something I struggle with a lot, and that I thought was important enough to be my first milepost on the...