by Karen Creamer | Aug 21, 2024 | (it's all about the) food, Connection
My daughter and I used to go to the Wells Chili-fest together over the years when she was younger. We loved buying the tasting kit in the plastic baggie, filled with small plastic cups, a spoon, and that all-important voting ballot!
Izzy at the Wells Chili-fest, 2013
After trying all of the different versions of chili from the participants, we would vote for our favorite one. Often we would have to go back to re-try one or two that we were torn between before we could make a decision. These contenders produced top shelf chili and it was sometimes hard to narrow it down to what we considered to be the best one, but, of course, we always did–although we didn’t always vote for the same one! Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Jul 5, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Connection, family, italian, relationships
My husband and I celebrated 32 years of marriage this month.
We decided to go to Calzolaio Pasta Company in Wilton, Maine.
As of today, we have been together over 34 years, but we almost never met.
At the time, I was working as a restaurant manager. I was happy where I was, but my store location was closing and I needed to take a new store. The one that was offered to me was one that I had no interest in taking over. None. Zero. What I discovered was that the company had zero interest in my feelings about it. It was that store or I was out of a job. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Jul 3, 2023 | Connection
A friend mentioned a problem she was having to me recently and it had been on my mind for a day or so.
I noticed that whenever I was thinking about my friend’s problem, I also began thinking of another person that I knew that was from the same area as she. Gradually I realized that my intuition was telling me that I should reach out to this second person to see if they might have any information that could help with this problem.
And because I was in the shower at the time, I realized that I had to act on this. I get a lot of intuitive hits when I am near (or in this case, in) water. I have learned to trust these nudges and to act to put them out into the world. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | May 3, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, #getoutside, Connection, gardening
It’s one of my favorite times of year: the mostly blank slate garden.
Deciding what to grow this year and seeing what lived through the winter.
My habit is to way, way, way overplant tomatoes, such that my tomato bed turns into a jungle from which it is difficult to extract any actual edible tomatoes before they split, mold, or become otherwise unappetizing. I am going to do my best to avoid that this year–and yes, I say this every year. Maybe if I declare in advance of plant shopping that I will grow one heirloom, one purple/orange/or yellow, one cherry, and one early variety then I will stick to that plan. Okay, so already know I won’t because I want a Purple Cherokee and I want a Lemon Boy, and I want a Supersweet 100 and a Sun Gold… Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Mar 28, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Connection
I grabbed a box (admittedly, it had been on the shelf for a while) of raisins to throw in my oatmeal this morning and they were very hard, dry, and generally unappealing looking. I was about to give them to the chickens–who are far less fussy than I am–to eat when I remembered a trick my grandmother taught me years ago, when I was making cookies.
I liked to add raisins to the chocolate chip cookies and sometimes, just like in my present life, they had been on the pantry shelf for awhile.
She told me to pour boiling water over them and let them sit for a bit, and drain the water off. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Mar 21, 2023 | Book Reviews, books, Connection
I knew almost nothing about this book before requested it from the library. I don’t even remember how I heard about it but it was next in the pile, and so I started reading it.
Right away, Small World had my attention because it mentioned a place that I had actually worked, The Walter E. Fernald State School, one of my first jobs after I became a nurse.
A bit later in the book it mentions Paragon Park and Nantasket Beach. My parents met there, and my grandmother had a house in that area for many years. We often visited her for Sunday dinner when I was younger. Keep reading
Karen Creamer
