Last Thursday, I had had a rough day with the kids. My carefully-calibrated schedule was thrown out of whack by a tardy piano teacher. I was feeling worn down and exhausted by a long week. Fortunately, my friend Rowena from the fashion and lifestyle blog She She Shoppers was feeling the exact same way. So [...]
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February 4th, 2012 | Tags: blogging, Chicago, friends, girls night out, giveaway | Category: Chicago, Culture, fashion, Friends, Relationships, Social Media | 9 comments
Chef Druck's offerings Last weekend was the inaugural Chicago Food Swap organized by me and my partner-in-crime, Chef Druck. As I have explained before, food swaps are the latest foodie craze and are sweeping the country from Los Angeles to Austin to Philadelphia. These events bring together passionate home cooks, gardeners and social media mavens [...] December 10th, 2011 | Tags: baking, blogging, canning, cooking, food, food swap, Recipes, social media | Category: Chicago, cooking, Friends, Social Media | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
Kevin's beautiful quince paste Is it weird to eat food made by people you don’t know? Of course, we do it all the time in restaurants. But at least we know that restaurants are inspected by the state and local health departments and there are enough people working in a restaurant kitchen to deter any [...] November 14th, 2011 | Tags: baking, blogging, Chicago, cooking, food, food swap, Recipes, social media | Category: baking, canning, Chicago, cooking, Social Media | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Remember when phones looked like this? Our kids don't. Parenting in the digital age has numerous challenges that we anticipate — cyber-bullying and “sexting” to name two — and even more that we don’t anticipate. While my children are not old enough for Facebook profiles or their own phones, I still find that parenting them [...] October 11th, 2011 | Tags: digital parenting, DVR, J.R., Parenting, pop culture, social media, video games, Zuzu | Category: Culture, Parenting, pop culture, Social Media, Zuzu | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Bone marrow appretizer at JSix After three days of vacation in San Diego, I said goodbye to my family, who were on their way to Los Angeles — via Disneyland — to visit cousins. I remained in San Diego for three days of work, namely a one-day writing conference entitled Women Create Media followed by [...] August 14th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, books, food, friends, jsix, Parenting, restaurants, san diego, social media | Category: Friends, Parenting, restaurants, Social Media, travel | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Win this Jabra Bluetooth in-car speakerphone! Do you Bluetooth? I must admit, until only a few weeks ago, I did not have a Bluetooth for talking on the phone while driving. Yes, I know that Illinois requires a hands-free device while using the phone in the car. But, you know me: I’m a rebel who won’t be [...] July 29th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, Bluetooth, giveaway, Jabra, Parenting, social media | Category: Parenting, Social Media, travel | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
Come down to the farm! Right now, in the popular press, there are two competing mythologies about agricultural production in this country. One myth tells us that our country’s agriculture is in the hands of large corporations that care only about profit. When we read stories about the overuse of hormones in milk or antibiotics [...] July 27th, 2011 | Tags: agriculture, Chicago, field moms, food, illinois farm families, social media | Category: Social Media | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
I am reposting this recipe from last July because it is gazpacho season once again and summer cooking just doesn’t get better than this. Gazpacho is so simple to make and the result could not be more healthy or delicious. I hope you all give it a try and put your own spin on this versatile dish. On a slightly [...] July 6th, 2011 | Tags: cooking, food, Recipes | Category: cooking, Recipes, Social Media, Uncategorized | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Today we have a guest post from my friend Cary Berkeley Kaye, a lawyer and mother of an adorable toddler. Cary, like most of us, saw the fake children’s book Go the F*** to Sleep, which went viral on Facebook and other sites, and had a good laugh about it. (I actually saw the author, who is a real [...] June 25th, 2011 | Tags: adam mansbach, bedtime, books, go the f*** to sleep, Parenting | Category: Parenting, Social Media | Comments are closed
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. A baby Zuzu at the Law Quad where her parents began their clandestine romance. When you write someone a pen-and-paper letter — which is an increasingly [...] June 16th, 2011 | Tags: email, friends, marriage, social media | Category: Friends, marriage, Social Media | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] June 1st, 2011 | Tags: giveaway, Judy Moody, kids, Parenting, Six Flags, Summer, summer movies | Category: Chicago, Parenting, Social Media | 49 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] May 25th, 2011 | Tags: affair, arnold schwarzenegger, facebook, friends, infidelity, maria shriver, marriage, Parenting | Category: marriage, Parenting, Social Media | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] May 19th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, marriage, social media | Category: marriage, pop culture, Social Media | Comments are closed
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 [...] April 30th, 2011 | Tags: baking, blogging, Chicago, cooking, food, Kitchen-Aid, Reid-Murdoch, social media, Whirlpool | Category: baking, Chicago, cooking, Social Media | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] April 26th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, Chicago, giveaway, haiku, Parenting, poetry, social media, Zuzu | Category: Social Media, Zuzu | Comments are closed
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 [...] April 19th, 2011 | Tags: clever girls, cooking, food, Judaism, social media | Category: cooking, Judaism, Social Media | Comments are closed
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 [...] March 25th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, blogosphere, friends, social media | Category: Friends, Social Media | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] March 11th, 2011 | Tags: creminelli, food, restaurants, salami, social media | Category: Chicago, cooking, Social Media | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
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. [...] February 24th, 2011 | Tags: friends, Parenting, social media, Zuzu | Category: Parenting, pop culture, Social Media, Zuzu | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] February 9th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, giveaway, movies, pop culture | Category: pop culture, Social Media | One comment - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] February 3rd, 2011 | Tags: baking, cooking, Cooking Connections, food, food allergies, Parenting, social media, Zuzu | Category: cooking, food allergies, Parenting, Social Media, Zuzu | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] January 29th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, cooking, food, food allergies, Parenting, Recipes, social media, Zuzu | Category: cooking, food allergies, Social Media, Zuzu | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Thanks to Trop 50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 fabulous wishes. I am relatively new to blogging. In fact, I started West of the Loop less than a year ago, [...] January 26th, 2011 | Tags: blogging, blogosphere, canning, clever girls, cooking | Category: cooking, Friends, Social Media | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] January 14th, 2011 | Tags: Chicago, food, girl and the goat, restaurants, stephanie izard, top chef | Category: Chicago, restaurants, Social Media | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 [...] January 11th, 2011 | Tags: fashion, Parenting | Category: fashion, Parenting, Social Media | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
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AboutWest 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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