Conference call

From time to time our leadership holds organization-wide conference calls where they update us on the latest things they're discussing in their big boy meetings. This morning we had one of them.

You can put your phone on speaker and mute it and do other things while they drone on about strategery and whatever. I usually file stuff or look at emails or just tune out and do work. This morning I sent some emails and doodled my desk.

It wasn't entirely unproductive. While I was doodling, I also learned new ways to combine perfectly good words into meaningless phrases that no one can understand.

A good start to the day.

Nutty for nutella

Nutella is one of my favorite things.

A few years ago in Paris, I re-discovered it when every morning at breakfast, there were baskets filled with nutella in cute little individual containers, the way jam or butter is presented here in our country. Who was I to question such a charming gesture?  So I happily spread it on anything I could find - toast, muffins, croissants ... my spoon.

Thankfully we did a lot of walking in Paris, so my consumption of nutella as well as the city's many other delightful tastes were somewhat neutralized, give or take 5 pounds.

Imagine my surprise when I came back and bought this jar at our local grocery, only to find it tasted nothing like what I'd had in Paris. Was it just that I was now sitting at my breakfast table in Ohio that caused it to lack that certain something?

Mais non! I asked a foodie friend of mine and learned that the nutella sold in the U.S. has hydrogenated oil in it, along with other additives, which completely changes its flavor and texture. Apparently we Americans like our foods synthetic-ized.

So if you happen to travel overseas and are a nutella fan, stock up. The stuff here just ain't the same.

Vitamin C for the soul

It seems that clementine season has ended, wherever in the world clementines grow.  Mexico? Israel? Heaven? I try to know where my food is sourced, but now I realize I'm woefully ignorant of where clementines come from. All I know is that I love them, the little bright orange things that peel so easily and taste like happiness.

Here in the middle of the country, the only oranges available at this time of year are these big old navel oranges, which are not as peelable and certainly not as sweet. But they'll have to do until clementine season comes again.

Big oranges are good for painting, however, which is why I painted these.

You gotta get your nutrients from wherever you can.

Poppyseed Cookies

Two of the most important men in my life - husband and son - have May birthdays. They both love these cookies, so I made them as a birthday treat for our celebration last weekend.

They are called "mohn" (pronounced mun) cookies, which is the Yiddish word for poppyseeds, a key ingredient.  For the longest time I called them moon cookies because they were round and no one told me otherwise. They come from an old recipe from my husband's family, handed down for at least three generations. The recipe I follow is scrawled in an old world pen by my husband's grandmother. It's part of a wonderful and literally crumbling recipe collection given to me by my mom-in-law.

Why these two men love these cookies confound most of the women in our family, including me. It's a hard, dry cookie with just a subtle flavor - a nice way of saying they're pretty tasteless. I've tried doctoring the recipe by adding flavors like lemon zest or cinnamon, but I get complaints every time.

So I followed the recipe, and the men I love were happy. It takes so little sometimes.

The best kind of gift

These flowers were a mother's day gift from my kids. For the past few years, they've given me something to go in my garden. It's the nicest kind of present because it lasts and keeps growing. Like kids. And moms. And, if you're lucky, love.

Hope all the moms out there have kids as great as mine, and had a day to match.

Lessons in Life

So it's a beautiful May morning - perfect blue sky, low 60s, no humidity, birds singing. I'm sitting outside on the deck having coffee, anticipating a day crammed with meetings and deadlines that I really don't want to deal with.  I consult with my resident experts here about how to approach such a day.

I think their message is clear.

Sometimes the answers are right there in front of us.