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Vacation on Lake Otsego = Balance

This vacation I’ve been resting up in preparation for the busy year to come. While “out of the office” I’ve been reading interesting blog posts, chipping away at my stack of novels, and spending time with my family. Today I am borrowing the idea of a work/life/kid balance post from the lovely Joanna Goddard of Cup of Jo. Last month her blog featured an amazing series of work/life balance articles with all sorts of interesting people. I thought it might be fun to pose the same questions to myself. This is not the first time I’ve written about my schedule, but this is a new perspective. Hope you enjoy and please share your own work/life balance stories below!

1. What’s Your Work Schedule? 

I work pretty much every day of the week. I try to take at least one day a week off, but that rarely happens. Weekday mornings are dedicated to my daughter. I am usually focused on getting out of the house to her morning activity and to the gym so I can work out. In the early afternoons she naps, goes to school, or has quiet time in her room with books, and I consider that the start to my workday. I use that time to cook (obviously), test recipes and catch up on email. I usually save photography for later in the day since she loves to help me stage photos on the back porch.

In the late afternoon we go out for bike rides, to the parks or play with friends. It is a fun time of day for us. Everyone is in a great mood and the big gulps of fresh air are so revitalizing after working inside. Dinner is usually already set so I can get it on the table quickly when my husband gets home.

After she is asleep is my most productive time of day. I write articles, send emails and draft new recipes. I always feel bad that my husband has to watch his favorite TV shows by himself, but night time is so peaceful without any ringing phones or the deluge of incoming emails. Before bed I always factor in at least a half hour of reading time. Reading novels is my great escape and is the best way for me to wind down. I try to read at least a chapter of something interesting, usually some kind of mystery or adventure novel, every single day.

I try to keep my work on the weekends minimal since my husband travels a lot during the week. We like to plan special family excursions together and rest up for the coming week, but a lot of times I factor in some good cooking and photography. I will also sneak in some writing and email time when he takes our daughter out for their traditional Saturday morning breakfast.

Last Monday began as a normal day for me. I took some food photos at breakfast, walked to the coffee shop with my daughter and made a quick run to the toy store. When it came to jump into my twitter feed around noon I got excited to exchange canning tips with friends. I couldn’t wait to share a new great canning tip and recipe I had just discovered. However, instead of talking about canning summer produce, everyone was talking about our friend, Jennifer Perillo. The night before she had unexpectedly lost her husband, Mikey, to a sudden heart attack. I was stunned. The food blog community was tweeting and retweeting the news, sending Jennie love and support and warm wishes to her and her gorgeous young daughters.

As the news reverberated over the course of the week our hearts bled for Jennie and we sent her all of the virtual strength we could. I am sure we all would have loved to have hugged her in person, but harnessing the power of friendship through our various social networks was the next best thing. I’ve met Jennifer several times and always loved her warmth and kindness. Her incredible talent is evident on her amazing food blog, In Jennie’s Kitchen, she has the ability to inspire nearly anyone to get in the kitchen and cook. I never met her husband and I haven’t met her daughters, but I know they are a close family full of love, happiness and grace. To lose Mikey is devastating, to say the least, and the best thing I can do for her right now is send her strength and be her friend.

Last Friday, a mere five days after saying goodbye to her husband, Jennie posted this on her website, asking people to make this Creamy Peanut Butter Pie, Mikey’s favorite, in honor of him. We were then to share it with our loved ones and take time to hug them and remind them how much we love them because, as Jennie so harshly learned, there is no guarantee of tomorrow. People have been posting gorgeous pies all over their food blogs and posting it on twitter with the hashtag #pieformikey or #apieformikey. I encourage you all to take a look.

My schedule didn’t allow me to post this on Friday so I am posting it today, Sunday, exactly one week after Mikey’s passing. I am doing this to honor Jennie, Mikey, their girls, and the strength of friendship within the food blogging community.  I encourage all of you to make this pie – during naptime, with your children, whenever… – and share it with your loved ones, too.

A few weeks ago I asked people on my Facebook fanpage to share which candy bar they like to eat frozen. I was astounded at the response. I always thought I was a little weird for freezing candy bars, but it turns out you all like frozen candy bars as much as I do! I try to be good about only indulging once in a long while, but I always keep a nice stash of Snickers Bars (my personal favorite) in the freezer just in case I need a quick fix. Let’s face it, even though we all love naptime cooking, there is nothing, NOTHING, faster than tossing a candy bar into the freezer during naptime and calling it dessert a few hours later.

A lot of your remarks made me curious about candy I had never tried to eat when frozen, so I decided to host my own frozen candy bar taste test on vacation in Cooperstown. To prepare for our candy feast I factored in a few extra long runs and my mother shimmied her way through Zumba class for a solid week prior. As for the friends we snagged into taste testing, well, they played a few extra tennis sets the next day to counteract the effects of their mass candy consumption.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

This ice cream was an experiment based on a recipe idea my friend Kirsten and I exchanged on Facebook earlier this month. She shared that her friend loved to drink pink lemonade while eating dark chocolate and we both agreed this sounded good. The sweet-citrusy flavor pairing had the same appeal as a chocolate dipped fruit peel. (Have I ever mentioned that chocolate dipped orange peels are my absolute favorite gourmet candy?)

My mother has an ice cream maker, thank god, so while my daughter was napping earlier this week I decided give our idea try. I whipped up a creamy lemon ice cream and added dark chocolate chunks. The creamy mixture chilled during naptime and we churned it right before dinner.

I am currently in Cooperstown on vacation so I am stopping in with a few great recipes and shorter posts this week and next. When my daughter naps on vacation I am generally away from my computer having fun cooking with my Mom, canning with Dad and catching up on the latest editions of Vogue and House Beautiful! At night, when I usually work, I am out with old friends!

On that note, I wanted to drop in today to share a fabulous recipe from the most recent Bon Appetit and a great menu we had at a dinner party last week. It was a bit of a potluck situation where three families brought dishes to my friend Peggy’s house for dinner. All of the dishes we brought were easily made during naptime earlier in the day. Truth be told, they could even had been made the night before after my daughter had gone to bed if I had to make them further in advance. Since the weather has been hotter than usual up here I elected to make a cold salmorejo, a chilled Spanish tomato soup that is a close cousin of gazpacho. This recipe, as stated about, is from Bon Appetit and my friend Caroline made it for us recently at their house. It was so fabulous I was waiting for an excuse to make it again and this was definitely the perfect occasion.

I am spending some time in Cooperstown with my family right now and am enjoying the break from my normal routine. Vacation has proved positively exhausting for my daughter and while she takes her daily nap I’ve been cooking all sorts of fabulous summer foods with my parent’s. Stay tuned, I will be sharing some of those goodies next week! (Hint, hint – I hope everyone has their canning equipment ready!!) Being away from my own house and my to-do list has given me a little more free time to read books, magazines and some fun internet articles. Here are a few of the things I’ve been enjoying lately and think you might, too. Have a great weekend!

Cup of Jo is my newest daily blog visit, I was so inspired by her Work/Life Balance Series I plan to do my own soon.

I have never been to Sweden, but every time I read Fine Little Day I want to book a trip there immediately. Preferably during the summer so to enjoy the long hours of sunlight and gorgeous ponds and lakes. (I also have to wonder if I would ever run in to Lisbeth Salander?)

Caitlin McGauley paints the most delicious watercolors, I am already saving up to order a print for my office. I can’t get enough of the cheery colors and sweet images.

Jamie Beck is a well-known photographer and her personal website, From Me to You, showcases both her personal professional photography. Check out these cool images she calls cinegraphs, photographs with cinematic movement. I have to learn how to do that!

I love Honestly WTF for the name alone

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

When I visited my friend Katie two weeks ago I brought these cookies. It was just the two of us with three kids for the weekend and I knew lavender shortbread would be the perfect foil for the endless bowls of goldfish crackers and cheerios we would see throughout the most of each day. Of course, I let my daughter try a bite of the shortbread after she spotted them on the counter, but she wasn’t a huge fan of the floral flavor, preferring her bag of classic Tate’s cookies instead.

What’s Going on Today: Heat wave city – beaching it all day!

Naptime Goals: Prepare burgers and leave in the fridge for the afternoon, prep Caprese Pasta Salad

Tonight’s Menu: Blue Cheese & Bacon Burgers, pasta salad.

The only blessing about the heat wave two weeks ago was that my daughter tired out much more quickly than usual and spent a significant time each afternoon napping like a pro. The heat took so much out of her it was all she could do to stay awake until 1pm after playing outside all morning! During naptime, I’ll admit, I had no interest in turning on the oven. Even though our air conditioning works well it still felt too hot to cook with heat. Instead I decided to prep a favorite summer meal that requires barely any heat to make: grilled burgers and cold pasta salad.

What’s Going on Today: Preparing for afternoon with friends the next town over. We are bringing the dessert!

Naptime Goals: Bake cake and give it enough time to cool!

Tonight’s Menu: Jim’s Grilled Tuna, Snow Peas, Rice with Scallions, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

When our friends invited us over for the tuna cookout I was in charge of bringing dessert. Since the attendees of our cookout included three young children, four adults and a few neighbors I wanted to make something that would appeal to all ages. Initially I considered a fancy fruit pie, but that is always touch and go with children. I then briefly thought about my Blueberry Thyme Poundcake with Lemon Glaze, but decided against it since many children don’t like herbal undertones in their food. In the end I settled on the dessert with universal appeal: chocolate cake.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

Last month our dearest friends from North Carolina moved to Connecticut. While I know they were sad to leave their life in the South, we were glad to have them  move closer to us. Their two boys get along so well with our daughter she has already started to think of them as brothers! Once their new house was unpacked they invited us over for a summer barbecue evening. We enjoyed a kid’s fair at the local park, a few games of cornhole and a delicious dinner of grilled tuna, snow peas and rice.

This is the latest installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today my friend Barbara, the source of many amazing recipes on this site, is sharing her grandmother’s famous potato salad recipe. I’ve made it and it is fabulous! It is also very naptime chef-friendly, so feel free to make it ahead time as need be.

Kelsey asked me a while ago to submit a “Tale from the Trenches” but I don’t’ really feel comfortable doing it because I am at best an “Occasional Chef” – – a “Special Occasion Chef” might be an even better description!  I don’t cook for my family every day.  I love to cook but the truth is that these days I spend more time reading and thinking about cooking than I actually spend cooking.

I live vicariously through Kelsey’s posts and read them faithfully each week. There’s nothing I love more than having a party and planning the menu.  Holidays present the perfect opportunity for me to try new recipes as well as make old favorites – I have a bulging file of recipes that continues to grow and lots of cookbooks (including a family cookbook my sister put together a few years ago as a way to preserve and pass on our family’s favorite recipes).

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

This week we’ve been in full summer mode. Everyday we’ve been taking long day trips to visit friends in neighboring towns and my daughter has been doing most of her napping in the car. This isn’t a problem, really, since I often mine the freezer or fridge for quick meals when I haven’t had a chance to cook during naptime. The other night my excavations yielded some frozen potato gnocchi (a must for any freezer!) which prompted me to head to the deck to check on my bountiful pots of herbs and pick some sage.