Events The next Chicago Food Swap will take place on June 3 at 3 pm. We are excited to announce our new location: the Savory Spice Shop in Hinsdale. Registration is filling up fast so don't wait! We will start a waiting list once we fill all 30 spots.
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I’m known for making to-do lists. I always have several going at a time: an overall to-do list, lists for the kids, lists for the house and a list of what has to get done each day. Even though I live on my iPhone and now on my brand-new iPad 2 (thanks, honey!), I still [...]
In honor of my ninth wedding anniversary later this week, I’m writing about divorce and infidelity.
My husband and I will celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary this week.
Not to worry, no one in my house is getting divorced or having my affair. To the contrary, I rather like my husband. We are united against our common enemy, namely [...]
Thank you to Yahoo! Mail for sponsoring this post about staying connected. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
When I studied abroad in Paris in 1994, I had to write letters home.
Technology and the internet have changed our lives so dramatically in [...]
Portabella Spinach Parmesan pasta by Healthy Choice
We all struggle with making healthy choices. Drive or bike to school? Order the salad or the cheeseburger? Go to bed early or stay up late writing a blog post? (That last one might be just me.) It can be exhausting to have to think about so many choices, so many times a [...]
Photo credit: www.bacontoday.com
So, it’s come to this. The laziest possible kind of post: a list. But actually, everyone loves a list, don’t they? As a kid, I looked forward all year to the Washington Post Style section’s annual In and Out list, which it published on New Year’s Day. These days, I always read [...]
I want this glass bowl for my Kitchen-Aid mixer.
I was lucky enough to attend a fun and educational blogger event last week at the World of Whirlpool headquarters in the historic Reid-Murdoch Center in downtown Chicago. The World of Whirlpool is a gorgeous event space with stunning test kitchen after test kitchen featuring the Whirlpool family of brands, including [...]
Did Zuzu write the winning haiku for the Type A Parent conference pass?
Zuzu’s second grade class recently finished a unit on expository writing – leading her to say things like “diagrams are a convention of informational texts, Mommy” – and started a unit on poetry. I was interested to see how the wonderful Mrs. M. would teach the kids [...]
Yogurt cake with lime zest and strawberries
A few months back there was an article in The New Yorker about food allergies called “The Peanut Puzzle” by medical writer Jerome Groopman. Needless to say, my husband and I read the article with avid interest and at least a dozen friends and relatives called or emailed to [...]
Thank you to Log Cabin for sponsoring my post about updated traditions in my household. To learn more about Log Cabin Syrups (which are all free of High Fructose Corn Syrup), breakfast for dinner, and other new ways to update traditions in your home, click here. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever [...]
Today’s post is part of the From Left to Write online book club. The idea of this book club is not to write a book review, per se, but rather to write a post in which the blogger connects that month’s book to an experience from his or her own life. April’s book is Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes, a memoir [...]
As of right now, I have plans to attend three — count ‘em, three — blogging conferences this summer: the Brands and Bloggers Summit ’11, Bloggy Boot Camp Chicago and, of course, the mother ship, BlogHer ’11. Now I know that some of you are snorting derisively at the idea of blogging conferences wondering what [...]
My new book club had its third meeting last week. I am very excited to be part of a book club again after several years off. I had been part of a wonderful book group during the years of my life that I went from “young bride” to “first-time mom.” That group was full of interesting, smart women and we read just [...]
One of our Tuscan lunches
When I was five months pregnant with Zuzu, my husband and I went on a babymoon to Italy. We spent a few days in Rome, just the two of us, and then met up with my parents and my brother and future sister-in-law in Tuscany, where my parents had rented a house [...]
Today’s post is part of the From Left to Write online book club. The idea of this book club is not to write a book review, per se, but rather to write a post in which the blogger connects that month’s book to an experience from his or her own life. March’s book is Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English, a novel [...]
It might be time to talk to these kids about Internet safety.
I had expected that second grade would be a pivotal year for Zuzu. And it has been. She got her ears pierced. She had her first sleep-over at a friend’s house. She saved up her money to buy a very grown-up iPod Touch. [...]
When I was growing up, I loved watching the old Blake Edwards-Peter Sellers “Pink Panther” movies. Do you remember when VCRs were new, in the early 80′s? I think we must have gotten our first VCR around 1983 because I remember recording the Grammy awards that year, when Michael Jackson won everything, including Best Gospel Album, for [...]
Did you hear? We had a blizzard this week!
Thanks to everyone who participated in Wednesday’s Cooking Connections class, Navigating Food Allergies, with The Motherhood and Lori Sandler from Divvies Bakery. Here’s a funny story about the class: it was scheduled to run from noon to 1 pm, Central Time, on Wednesday. Normally, JR has a [...]
Birthday parties are one of the hardest things for kids with food allergies
I have written many times on this blog about my daughter Zuzu’s food allergies. In the past seven years of living with Zuzu, I have learned many things about food and food allergies. I have learned to shop and cook differently; I have learned how to chose [...]
Thanks to Trop 50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 fabulous wishes.
Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to help grant a friend’s wish!
I am relatively new to blogging. In fact, I started West of the Loop less than a year ago, [...]
My signed menu from Chef Stephanie Izard
There was a time in my life — a two-income, no-kids time — when I was really keyed in to the Chicago restaurant scene. I followed chef arrivals and departures, hot neighborhoods, and trendy cuisines like a bookie follows the ponies. My husband and I saved our pennies to eat [...]
Everyone I know is talking about Yale Law professor Amy Chua’s piece in the Wall Street Journal about why Chinese mothers are superior to Western mothers. The piece is an teaser from Chua’s upcoming book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, on how to raise successful children, successful being defined in this context as “high-achieving to the extreme.” Chua contrasts Western [...]
Ruffled Echo Touch gloves
Now that the holidays are over, what was the best gift you received? What was the best gift you gave?
Among the best gifts I got were three gorgeous new cookbooks: Ina Garten’s latest, which is annoyingly titled Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? (My question: how hard was it to come [...]
In general, I live in fear of the day Zuzu leaves our town’s intimate little public school district and heads off to the enormous public high school that serves Oak Park and River Forest, the aptly named Oak Park River Forest High School. But, the truth is, even though I find the idea of a 3000-person [...]
Our temple has a book fair in the fall featuring “Jewish” books for adults and kids. I use what my mother calls “cutesy quotes” around the word “Jewish” because the definition of a Jewish book in this context is fairly broad, ranging from books about Jewish religious practice and the latest Holocaust novel to anything by [...]
I have been thinking this week about a place that I have never lived — indeed I have only even visited this place a handful of times — but it is a place that holds a deep fascination for me as an American and as a Jewish person.
Here’s a hint: No sleep til…? A tree grows [...]
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About West of the Loop is the chronicle of my struggle to stay relevant and current as a thirty-something suburban mom. It’s about marriage and relationships; the work-life balance; cooking, food and feeding our families; books, fashion, pop culture and other fun things.
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