When German Frederick Froebel created kindergarten in the 1800s, little could he have envisioned what it would become. Those first kindergarten students, indeed the first children to experience early childhood education, learned through play, music, movement, paper-folding and games. Froebel reco… Read full post »

Last year, Amy Chua managed to push a whole set of collective parenting buttons when she asserted in the Wall Street Journal, and later in her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, why Chinese mothers are superior -- apparently to us Western parents who let our kids attend slumber… Read full post »

Chances are you're well aware that much of the past week (in the broadcast TV world anyway) has been all about Oprah Winfrey's extended farewell. As well it should have been. Whether or not you liked her style or resonated with her messages, Oprah has no doubt deeply… Read full post »

Today would have been my mom, Bunnie's, 77th birthday. She died four years ago after a long illness. We were close but our relationship was not without rocky patches. Since I began working for Children & Nature Network a couple of months ago, I can say without hesitation that my… Read full post »

Solitary Crow ...
Companioning
My progress
Over snowy fields

-- Senna

To celebrate New Year's
We feast
Newly-opened eyes on
Snowy Fujiama

-- Sokan

Photos from the season of going inward -- when not playing outside.

… Read full post »

I love all kinds of jams and butters. Of them, apple butter is certainly one of the most robust, with its wonderful spicy, fall taste. Comprised of just a few natural ingredients, and no white sugar, the best apple butter cooks most of the day over a low flame (slow… Read full post »

In Edward Lear's playful love poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, the title characters "went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat". On their wedding night, "they dined on mince and slices of quince" and, yes, ate them with a runcible spoon.

While I don't know what Lear's mince… Read full post »

Another disturbing sign of the times: This article in today's Times about parents who are so afraid of stranger abduction that they drive a child 5 houses down (yes, you read that correctly) rather than let them walk, or even walk them themselves. Also in the article, a town in which… Read full post »

The hoopla surrounding the book and movie, Julie and Julia, has been wonderful, of course -- for amateur cooks, for foodies, for bloggers. Anything that gets people back into the kitchen after seasons of take-out (if, indeed, that's where they head post-movie) and certainly anything that make… Read full post »

I recently had the privilege of visiting Raymond & Co. Cheesemongers in Glen Ellen, CA, and partaking in a little tasting. Yum! Everything they offered was tantalizing and top-of-the-cheese-game, including two farmstead goat cheeses, the Pavé and the Petit Marcel, from the relative… Read full post »

This is a fantastic Parmesan-style cheese, perhaps all the more because it's made in Wisconsin, rather than Italy.

According to the Huffington Post, it was recently named Best Cheese in the U.S. in the 2009 Championship Cheese Contest. It's easy to see why. The SarVeccio grates beautifully and has a… Read full post »

My family just returned from a wonderful road trip from the San Francisco area to Portland Oregon.

When we drove back into our driveway, an owl swooped over our car, we believe to a nesting place in redwoods near our house. We stopped the car and quietly got out,… Read full post »

This is a nice gouda-type cheese in the same family as one of our regular purchases, Sankaenter. In fact, Hirtenkase could be Sankaenter's older, more serious brother. The cheese is a hard worker -- it's hard in texture, in fact and a bit dry. It's dotted with protein crystals,… Read full post »

Are you wondering how to use your abundance of mid-summer tomatoes and zucchini, and celebrate Bastille Day at the same time?

One word: Ratatouille.

This tasty, colorful melange never fails to summon summer, while providing a few helpings of vegetables or a fool-proof side-dish that works wit… Read full post »

The trend started as flat wings of hair affixed to each side of the head. My friend Dierdre was the first to have them. This was in high school.

By college, we were all trying to achieve some version of Farrah-ness. Collective hair hasn't been that large since. It took heavy… Read full post »

I recently ducked into the fantastic Girl and the Fig restaurant in Sonoma and shared a wonderful cheese course with My Man. Of the six cheeses, the Bo Poisse, from Lisa Gottreich and Miriam Block's new Bohemian Creamery in Bodega, was the absolute standout. The first thing that hits you… Read full post »

This picture just plain makes me happy, so I wanted to share it and say, Happy Summer!

We're about a day and a half into it -- the solstice clocked this year at 5:45 Greenwich Mean Time on June 21 — a bit after midnight yesterday on… Read full post »

If you love the distinctive taste of blue cheese, but would like to try something more creamy than crumbly, then Blu del Monviso, from the Serale family dairy in Italy's Piedmont region, is your blue. It's extremely soft and spreadable and, as a result, is excellent on a water cracker.… Read full post »

When International House of Pancakes finally opened a franchise in Vermont (the 50th state to get an IHOP), its General Manager, Sam Handy, Jr., successfully petitioned the franchisor to allow the South Burlington shop to serve real maple syrup, instead of the corn syrup blend that is served at the o… Read full post »

On a recent trip to my old stomping grounds in Santa Monica, CA, I wandered down Montana Avenue and into a delightful, relatively new cheese enterprise, Andrew's Cheese Shop. Not only was the Andrew on hand, along with some hearty cheese tasters, he personally recommended a Coolea cheese from… Read full post »

When Alex, the cheesemeister at my local Whole Foods recommends a cheese, I tend to listen, and this week he told me about a sheep cheese called Brigante, from Sardinia. Then he cut a slice for me to taste.

I found it an extremely pleasing cheese, very mild and so… Read full post »

Wow! Master cheesemaker Rolf Beeler has swept this gruyere gal off her feet. I was already a passionate fan of gruyere – a greatly undersung cheese, I think, wasted in the vast melting pot of the typical less-than-exciting fondue. My fave cheese of late has been the L’Etivaz gruye… Read full post »