It’s been a wild week, and I can’t think of a better way to unwind than to meet up with old friends to cook – and eat – together. That’s what Mike and I are doing tonight. We’re taking a hands-on class called “Small Bites, Big Party” with Chef Paul Lindemuth at Marcel’s Culinary Experience. […]

Our neighborhood independent bookstore is celebrating its 30th anniversary in style — Sandmeyer’s Bookstore is throwing a party Wednesday night at Jazz Showcase, right down the street. Ulrich and Ellen Sandmeyer wanted a few local authors to speak while Harry and the Hit Men (a terrific cover band they’re flying in from the Bay Area […]

Whitney and I did a presentation at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Skokie, IL this morning. The kids were great fun, they were very curious about how Whitney does her job, and how I manage to do all the things I do without being able to see. The hour flew by quickly, and as always, […]

There are few things I enjoy more than staying at a fancy hotel  — especially when someone else is paying for it. My bed gets made every morning,, clean towels magically appear in the bathroom, and when I walk through the lobby everyone from the doorman to the people behind the front desk ask if they […]

When the packet of thank you notes from the fifth graders at St. Mary of the Lake School arrived in the mail, a light bulb went on over my head: take them along to my presentation at Northern Illinois University! The undergraduates in the class Whitney and I visited last week at NIU are studying […]