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 | Feb 28, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Comfort, Connection, family, italian
With the supply of pastina at an all time low, I’ve been thinking about other staples in my diet that have been around since childhood.
Spaghetti is one of them.
I usually buy DeCecco Angel Hair Spaghetti (cooks in 2 to 3 minutes!) but they didn’t have any at the supermarket, so when I was looking for the Prince Pastina (and striking out again), I saw the Prince Spaghetti and thought I’d by a box for old times’ sake. This also reminded me of the commercial from back in the day, of Anthony running through the streets of the North End in Boston to make it home on time for supper. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Jan 10, 2023 | Connection, education, family
I have renewed my goal of learning to speak Italian this year.
Why Italian? Because half of my family of origin was from Italy. The other half is from Ireland, and I already speak English. 🙂
Also, I want to go to Italy and visit where my grandparents were from. Learning Italian makes me feel closer to that goal, which is, sadly, already about ten years overdue.
This is the second foreign language I’ve studied so far. I learned French when I was younger. I began in seventh grade, continued in high school and college. I remember sitting in the language lab in college and having no fun whatsoever. The end result is that I can understand and read some French, but I am (and was) a poor speaker of it. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Jan 8, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Comfort, Connection, family, italian, recipes
I have been making Pastina for decades, since my children were babies. Back then, they called it “Stini”, and sometimes I still do. It was a quick, easy, comforting thing to eat and they loved it.
Making Pastina was also a tradition, because my mother and my grandmother made it for me when I was a baby and for all the years after that.
Over the past several months, I have been having trouble finding Pastina at the grocery store. I had quite a stash so I didn’t worry too much about this at first. I preferred Prince Pastina but decided that Barilla or Ronzoni would also be fine. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Jun 6, 2022 | (it's all about the) food, #getoutside, Connection, family, health
Have you ever eaten dandelions?
When I was little, my grandmother would send me out to the yard to pick dandelion leaves. After I brought them in, we’d put them in a large bowl and soak them in salt water, rinse, and then soak them again, and then soak them again (because third time is the charm), and then rinse well, making sure to get all the grit out.
When foraging outside, it’s important to pay attention to where the greens are located. For example: are they close to the road where car exhaust could adversely affect them? This time, I only had to venture to the back porch because this year, my husband made a planter with dandelions for me. Keep reading
by Karen Creamer | Dec 27, 2020 | family, health
The week before I woke my husband up in the middle of the night to take me to the ER, my brother and I had been comparing blood pressure readings via text, just for fun.
We would take turns texting our numbers to each other, joking about which one of us ‘won’ that round (the winner was the one with the highest numbers).
I won a LOT.
And then he had a heart attack.
As the saying goes: “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.”
He is home from the hospital now and recovering nicely, but there is nothing like a heart attack, whether your own or your brother’s, to get your attention.
When someone has a significant health event, I always think it pays to look at what you were doing leading up to it happening. What were you eating and drinking? How were you spending your time? How were you feeling overall on any given day? What supplements were you taking? Have you introduced anything new or different in the few months? After all, everything has led up to this point. What will you do differently now to create a different outcome? Keep reading
Karen Creamer
