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 | 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 | Apr 25, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Clarity
I recently realized that I was drinking up to six cups of coffee a day and decided (for reasons that I won’t go into right now) that it was excessive and perhaps could bear some, um, reduction.
I have my favorite kinds of coffee, and one of them was Green Mountain’s Spicy Eggnog, which was discontinued years ago. I still had 2 of the k-cups left that I saved for a special occasion (one of which I used last week when I was feeling sorry for myself and needed some cheering up).
Periodically I would look online to see if they might magically appear again but sadly, they have not. 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 14, 2023 | (it's all about the) food, Comfort, recipes
Is there anything better than homemade chicken soup when you aren’t feeling well?
Recently when I wasn’t feeling well, I was dying for a cup of hot, homemade chicken soup, but not just any homemade soup. I wanted MY homemade chicken soup. The problem was that I felt too awful to make it for myself.
I decided to plan ahead to give myself the gift of soup for some time in the future when, for whatever reason, I need it but am not able to make it for myself. Now that I’ve done it, it feels comforting just knowing that it is there in the freezer, and all I have to do is add the pasta (ditalini or pastina!) or rice to it. Keep reading
Karen Creamer
