TurnofPhraseBlog

Tag: family

  • You Don’t Know What You Got ‘Till It’s Gone

    Joni Mitchell was right.  As this applies to my kitchen-less state, at least.  Being Canadian, turkey was on the menu this past Thanksgiving weekend.  So I left town in order to find a kitchen in which I could cook one.  And I find myself remembering things that I used to cook in an oven.  What…

  • Where’s the Chocolate?

    Dear Garbage Collectors, You are my new bff’s! Seriously. That day I saw the empty garbage can I did the “Happy Snoopy Dance” right then and there with my neighbors looking on over their breakfast preparations. There’s nothing like a kitchen renovation to break down one’s inhibitions, I have found. In my pink fuzzy house…

  • A new departure for this travel blog…

    Dear Garbage Collector, Enclosed you will find copious amounts of chocolate.  Some would interpret this as a bribe.   I would never insult you with that word.  It is a gift.   You see, I started renovating my kitchen about two days ago.  It feels like two months ago and I am afraid of what…

  • So we got on bikes and saw things from a different perspective…

    The Netherlands is famous the world over for its cycling citizens.  It is very cycling oriented.  Slim, fit-looking 60 and 70 year olds on bikes is a common sight that my husband is not always graciously yielding to.   Don’t get me wrong, he DOES yield…just not graciously.  Infrastructure for bikes is better than for cars…separate…

  • The Netherlands are peaceful…except for traveling Canadians…

      The Netherlands is beautiful.  The reality of the countryside painted by the Dutch Masters is as peaceful and bucolic as their paintings suggest.  To be in the Dutch countryside is rural.  For a North American this is a rare experience.  We are cavalier about space because we have a lot of it.  The parts…

  • Warning: Coffee is an Addictive Substance that Can Affect Your Marriage

      In my native habitat, I am aware I spend too much money on café Americano mistos out of paper cups.  If the first step to “recovery” is awareness then I am aware.  I have been, however, extremely unmotivated to change.  My husband, a perplexing mixture of generosity and frugality, wishes it were different.  But…

  • A Recipe for Comfort Food: Dutch/Italian Style

    This is a rainy day, two people out of three maybe coming down with a virus, kid-friendly comfort food dish.  Or so I thought.  A spaghetti sauce bottom is topped with a baked rotini and aged Gouda cheese topping.  This is what it looks like ready for the oven: First the spaghetti sauce.  It works…

  • Top Ten Ways I Know I’m Going on a Long Trip…

    …my anxiety level is in charge of me instead of the other way around and I realize one way to deal with it is through humour. All notion of serving “food groups” (you know, fruits and veggies, grains, protein…) to my children goes out the window in favour of emptying the fridge and freezer.  We’ve…

  • What this is, what it’s not, and maybe why you might read it…

    Or not.  This blogging- is such a narcissistic enterprise.  In researching (’cause that’s what I do) “how to blog”, I’ve read a few blogs.  OMG…I guess I really don’t “get it”.  But, I am going to figure this out as I go.  So this is what I know so far:  this blog is not going…