My Grandmother’s Rice Pudding Recipe (Reisauflauf)
For this weekend's Jewish holiday of Shavuot (celebrating God's giving the Ten Commandments and the Torah (five books of Moses) to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai) it is customary to eat a dairy meal, and my German, non-Jewish grandmother's rice pudding ("Reisauflauf") is the perfect recipe for that because in the Bohemian kitchen, a "Mehlspeise" (sweet dish) is often [...]
The Ever Elusive Artist Date in the Japanese Garden at the Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park
I might be good at writing my Morning Pages, but I am horrible at keeping Artist Dates. These are two of the three pillars sustaining a creative life, according to Julia Cameron (see The Artist's Way); the third is daily walks, which I'm also not so good at. It is quite simply very hard for me to fit in an [...]
What 5 Years of Writing Morning Pages Can Do
Five years of writing Morning Pages equals twelve notebooks On April 8, 2013, I wrote in my very first Black n' Red notebook: "I shall give this writing Morning Pages a try." Five years later, I'm still writing Morning Pages. Thankfully, I marked each anniversary with a blog post, and so, as I was putting this one together, I [...]
6 Things that Will Surprise You about Publishing a Book
Karlsruhe, Germany - Photo by Barbara Jester Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my book's publication--the perfect time to share a few things that surprised me about publishing a book: People genuinely admire you for having done it--for having completed something, for actually writing a book and getting it out there. Many people dream of this, few actually [...]
Passover Recipes
Passover is, after Rosh Hashana, my favorite Jewish holiday--mainly because it is all about home and family--and I love it despite, or maybe because of, all the work involved. Hosting a Seder is, I believe, the essence of Jewish homemaking. Yesterday I made a big batch of Gefilte Fish as my husband's Aunt Rachel taught me (see Becoming a Proper [...]
Book Companion Post: My Aunt Herta
Herta and I, Wiesbaden, 2002 Today would have been my Aunt Herta's birthday. I like to remember loved ones on their birthdays, and since Herta is one of the key characters in Jumping Over Shadows, I thought I'd create a tribute to her. Not only was Herta a key character in the book, but she was also a [...]