Dear friends and readers! We moved apartments last Friday, leaving our sweet tree-house apartment with the incredible view almost five years to the day after we moved in. I still distinctly remember how much I disliked the apartment when we first moved in. Isn't that nuts? I missed Max's old place where we'd been camping…

In a little less than half an hour, my husband and I are leaving the apartment, taking the bus six stops and checking into this hotel for a much-needed one-night getaway. It feels totally indulgent and also totally fantastic and I am basically counting the seconds until we get there. (I think I should also…

Heh. So! This week I delivered my first batch of recipes for the cookbook with head notes, a table of contents, and a handful of photos from my kitchen to the publisher. The rest are due in August, which seems like a lot of time on some days and absolutely no time at all on…

Sometimes blogs are accused of peddling an unrealistic, gauzy version of life that makes readers feel inadequate over time. I'd hate to think of that happening here, not when I indulge in culinary confections such as this – cold, day-old rice dug out of the rice cooker and topped with a squirt of Heinz ketchup…

Dear Readers, I have fallen and I can't get up. I took a little break over the holidays, just a little one, I thought, and now I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get back in the blogging saddle. I keep sidling up to it, but I can't even get a…

I will be real honest with you: I am glad to see the end of 2014. It's actually been a pretty good year personally – there's been lots of fun and challenging work, we finally (after four years of hunting!) bought our first apartment and our little kook of a child is thriving and happy…

It's 6:50 again and Hugo and Max are both asleep this time – bliss – and I'm back at my desk with my trusty cup of tea. Thank you for all those virtual fist-bumps yesterday. They meant the world. Berlin is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall this weekend and the…

My darling child, who, given the choice, would rather eat raisins than anything I cook for him. I read this sensitive, intelligent piece last week by a woman who doesn't like to cook or, perhaps more accurately, doesn't like how cooking makes her feel, and it really stuck with me. What she wrote was funny…

My friend Joanie celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago the way she does every year, gathering friends and family under a big oak tree in a park on the border between Berlin and Potsdam. It's a potluck thing and the spread each year boggles the mind. In fact, I'd go so far as to…

We are gripped in the throes of World Cup fever around these parts. The German team are my guys, but it's been great to see Italy and the USA doing so well so far. (SO FAR, ragazzi.) Hugo even has his very own soccer ball now (he turned two last week and the ball was…