The Chronicles of a VBG (Voluptuous Brown Gurl)

Summer is a great time to partake of the abundance of fresh produce. Whether from the farmer's market or a pick your own farm, you can't go wrong. In both cases it is freshly picked not languishing in some big box grocery refrigerator for a week. Consuming less animal protein is great for you and even better for the planet. I started this blog because I was flirting, successfully at the time, with a vegetarian/vegan diet.  Well my on again, off again romance is back on... again and here's what I'm cookin' this month. A couple of my first jobs were as short order cooks in "sub shop" type restaurants.  Both times the owners were Greek so in addition to your usual pizzas and subs they also sold Greek specialities like souvlaki, spanakopita, tzatsiki sauce and gyros.  I learned to make them all even though the person who taught me the most, Maria, didn't speak a word of English. While her verbal direction was sorely lacking, I did pay attention...

I started this post more than 3 months ago after a rare but delightful dinner "date" in DC with my half sister and niece. I have 5 siblings, the progeny of my biological father and I wanted to write about that. My sister is 10 years my junior and we've had sporadic contact over the last 20 years not for any reason other than we didn't have the bond of two kids who grew up in the same household (or even state). The last time we saw each other, the wunderkind still needed her pacifier for the plane ride and Facebook didn't exist. It is now our primary method of communication these days – thanks MZ!  That last visit was caused by the death of my beloved paternal Grandfather. This time thankfully, no one had died. My 10 year old niece and her classmates trekked up from Louisiana to behold the majesty that is our nation's capital. When I learned they would be in town, I vowed to seize the opportunity to see this side of my family again.  Another cousin, from my ...

My last few posts have been a bit whiny and  while I enjoy sharing my trials, tribulations and ruminations I don't believe life is meant to be just a string of days, months, years of working, eating, sleeping, complaining, or resolving conflicts. Sometimes a gurl's just gotta have fun.   Earlier this year I had both the foresight and desperation to purchase concert tickets for a summer performance at Wolftrap.  The foresight because I love the Filene Center at Wolftrap which is the only performing arts venue that is also a national park! As such it's my preferred concert venue despite it's location in Northern Virginia.  I stumbled upon their Saturday morning Theatre in the Woods programs when the wunderkind had just started school. Anyway, the desperation came from being fresh out of ideas for yet another Mother's Day gift. My rescue came via email - the announcement of  Seal's North American Summer tour.  Not a Navy seal or nautical mammal but ...

The last 11 days or so or so have been a bit odd for me.  I have prided myself on the fact that while I've never been there the Caribbean has never held much appeal for me but when I got Groupon  offering a cheap getaway to Puerto Rico, I had to consider it.  Now you can believe that if someone said "I have free ticket, you wanna..." I'd be packing before the sentence was finished even if it was in the Caribbean. That's  just my m.o. where travel is concerned. Anyway, I looked up the airfare and it was definitely reasonable - direct flights for about $350 round-trip/pp are easy to find. Plus, I'd already scheduled a couple days off around my birthday next month and I'm always off on Mondays so I could easily swing the 5 day, 4 night trip that was advertised. My Mom even said she'd like to come along which was a surprise. So why almost 2 weeks after seeing that offer have I still not booked our vacation?  I am not someone who takes forever to make up...