My mom makes the best Thanksgiving sweet potatoes ever. How do I know? Besides the fact that I have eaten them since (probably) infancy, every person I have ever served them to loves them — and usually asks for the recipe. Obviously this don’t have to only be made for Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure […]
November 10 was the 239th birthday of the Marine Corps, and this year we celebrated it two Fridays in a row. The Marine Corps ball is kind of a big deal to Toby and I, since we were set up 10 years ago (eek!) to go to the 229th birthday ball together. Plus, it is […]
A couple of years ago, I learned that my friend Dan’s favorite dessert is pineapple upside-down cake. I had never made (or even eaten!) pineapple upside-down cake, but it sounded pretty good, so I figured I’d try it. Long story short: It was delicious and really easy to make. Anyway, I saw this recipe when […]
You’ve probably noticed that I put my outfits together based on the event, occasion or location at which I’ll be wearing them. I think I’ve always been like that, actually: I remember going to a Phoenix Suns game when I was in middle school and wondering what the heck the woman sitting courtside in YELLOW […]
After I graduated from college and moved to South Carolina, my dinners generally came from a can, a box, the freezer, or a restaurant. I baked cookies and cakes and muffins occasionally, but I really didn’t know how to cook “real” (non-sugary) food, particularly meals that could go from stove (or microwave) to my tiny table in about […]
When I was in elementary school (probably around second grade?), my family went to Kansas to visit some relatives. The first night, we stayed in Witchita, and my dad uttered a sentence none of us have ever forgotten: “When we’re on vacation, you can order whatever you want.” I had a giant bowl of guacamole […]
Is there anything cuter than Hello Kitty? I think not. This weekend was the first-ever Hello Kitty Conference, a celebration of the supercute cartoon timed to coincide with her 40th birthday. As you can imagine, cuteness abounded. Although I’m not a Hello Kitty superfan or anything, I did have quite a bit of Hello Kitty and […]
Do you guys remember those “Pork: The Other White Meat” commercials from the 80s? Apparently they worked pretty well, because every time I see the word “pork” — even in regard to wasteful spending in Washington — I think of that phrase. But I didn’t really eat a ton of pork as a child, I […]
We had originally planned to go to the Petrified Forest on our second full day in northern Arizona, but we didn’t get to see everything on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon the first day, so we decided to check out Meteor Crater and then drive up a different road, through the Navajo reservation, […]
One of the main things we wanted to do when we drove from DC to California was stop and visit the Grand Canyon. Toby had never seen it, and I was in fourth grade the last time I saw it. But our moving truck arrived earlier than planned, so while we did get to drive […]