I am a working mamma who, like most mammas multitasks endlessly – sometimes to the point of collapse. I usually wake up between 4-5 am to prep meals and take care of a few household chores before starting the workday. Exhausting, but necessary to ensure that the puzzle pieces of the day all fit into place.
As a working mom, I have found it easy to neglect caring for my feet. With the never-ending to-do list, I can never seem to find time to care for some of my basic self-needs. So, the foot-care has been the first to get placed on the backburner. However, I am attempting a different approach. As I find my dry and cracked feet inadvertently scratching and scraping me as I toss and turn at night - I thought it would be best to start some care for my feet.
Growing up in Hong Kong, Halloween was not celebrated as it is in North America, at least it wasn't in the 1990s. I never went from apartment-to-apartment trick or treating nor I do not ever recall any kids getting dressed to collect or hand out candy. In fact, I did not realize the reality of trick or treating until I made a few friends from North America. And while I enjoyed my scary movies like Freddy Krueger, Chucky, Poltergeist, and the Shining - Halloween was never a thing in my circle.I was well in my late teens before I even heard a Halloween related story in Hong Kong. And it was a good one - in the late 1990s a group of folks dressed in costumes went to Lai Kwai Fong to bar hop and celebrate Halloween. One of the individuals was dressed like a local prisoner - the local police monitoring the area thought it was a prisoner that had escaped and arrested the individual. Hilarious and ridiculous all at once... it even made it on the evening news!
It is officially fall here in the Mid-Atlantic and I could not be more excited. As I sit in my four seasons room writing this inaugural post, I am greeted with the fall colors from my window, and I am in complete awe.
Now that my kids are getting older, they are more vocal about the foods they do not want to see on the weekly dinner menu. One of the veggies they wanted booted off the menu was spinach. With little success - I tried spinach salads mixed with their favorite protein and veggies; I tried serving it in sandwiches and burgers; even tried sautéing the spinach. No matter how I served the kids spinach they could not get past the earthy flavors often found in the veggie.
Mom was a great vegetarian cook, with minimal ingredients mom would turn boring veggies into flavorful meals. Preparing a vegetarian meal was her prime. Her non-veg meals were always tales. She would add oregano and call it Italian, or she would add soy sauce and call it Chinese - we would joke that she was making the same dish just adding a different herb or sauce to call it something else.
Growing up my mom would make a variation of this Indian carrot dish or a regular basis. I remember coming back from school and cringing when I realized that this carrot meal was on the menu for the evening. I grew to despise this carrot meal, so much so that I stopped eating carrots for a while.
As a working mom I am always looking for quick, easy, and tasty meal ideas. Cooking a meal at the end of the work day is near impossible. Between wrapping up work and taking the kids to their after school activities, the end is usually over before it begin. So I generally do my meal prep in the mornings before the sun its out.
I did not grow up eating a lot of sweet potatoes in Hong Kong. Occasionally sweet potatoes would be included in curry. During the wintertime, there would be the occasional street hawker selling warm roasted sweet potatoes - absolutely fantastic for those cold days spent walking around the city. But that is really the extent of my recollection of sweet potatoes as a child.
I grew up watching my parents and extended family have their morning chai - warm black tea boiled and then steeped with spices (like cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and star anise) and milk . I always loved the smell but never appreciated a good cup of chai until I was much older.
I designed this tote as a homage to my birth country. Despite its continued turmoil, it is a country filled with many kind people and natural breathtaking sights that continue to leave me in awe.
Ganesh is generally found in most Hindu-worshiping households. This deity is believed to remove obstacles and mantras are regularly practiced to bring upon good fortune and success.
Designed by a working parent for a working parent. The reality is that stuff happens, balls get dropped and things just splatter. This design is a friendly reminder that life happens!
