Calling all the New Yorkers out there. Before we moved from the Netherlands (I know I keep going back to those days….), I tried my hands at making bagels. And succeeded too. And because I promised you bagels and Nigerian stews (not served together mind you) – here it is. See I feel that for my American experience to be complete, I have to go to certain places – New York City is one of them. A place I’ve long associated with fun, fashion and gastronomy. Whenever I think of New York, I think Blueberry muffins, hot dogs, bagels and...
Reasons to Believe: Celebrating Sinterklaas in Nigeria
What are memories made of? Fragments of colored glass, perfect for life’s grand mosaic Pieces of patterned cloth for the patchwork quilt of our earth journeys And thick threads, for the tapestries we weave of the world
The Taming of The Stew
His cries of ‘spice, spice’ herald new beginnings, but at only 4 years old…this little man knows it not. This is the first proper ‘thing’ to come out of our new kitchen ( long before our delicious churros which have been followed by cupcakes and pizza. I’m thankful I can still cook and bake!), or ‘shrine’ as my younger sister calls it. It could pass for one. Small, and walls bedecked with ‘oddities’ that might look like instruments of war…to the uninitiated – roasting needles, an old ice-cream scoop, whisks and a metal jug that some may consider fit for...
Spiced Pumpkin Churros for Thanksgiving
I’m thankful for autumn and fall. For churros. For pumpkin puree. For pumpkin churros. For sugar, and chocolate and spice. For taste notes called toffee and caramel. For New England autumns, for deep-fried. Dough. I’m thankful for new beginnings, for children that love freely, for hope, for joy. For life. And the occasional wave of pain. I’m thankful for homecomings, imperfect as they sometimes are.
Still Here
Checking in…..what can I say. Sorry? Pray for me? I’m slugging away….. Have you moved before? 358 brown boxes have…..turned to dust. Mostly. There’s stuff everywhere. Terrifying it is.
My Childhood Favourites
This thing called ‘nostalgia’. Who are you? You blow hot and cold at the same time – one child, different mothers, loved and hated the same. In one hand you hold the Polaroids of old, yellowed and dog-eared with age…full of smiles, carefree youthfulness and abandon; yet in the other sits the present and the future, full of promise yet mingled with uncertainty, a road yet untravelled. Today I find myself…and I’m on a scale, tipping left and right when all I want to do is stay centered, around a fulcrum of certainty. All I need today is to create...
How to Make Nigerian Ogbono ‘Soup’
The Hague, July 2011 Imagine this: Its Monday morning in the official headquarters and I’m in the ‘war room’, surrounded by uber-tech computer screens, sitting around a large wood-panelled table. My entire body finds solace in a soft, black leather swivel chair and I sink in, armed for another work week. Chit and chatter fill the air, colleagues at a meeting – planning, sharing and strategizing.
Why I loved Steve Jobs!
I am writing this on my 2011 MacBook Pro. Last night one of my heros died – Steve Jobs. My husband says ‘I’ll never go back to Windows’, after a few weeks of flirting with my our Apple laptop. In 2006, I had a sleek black iPod which we loved. I still have it, dead as it is. But it was in 2009 that I first ‘met’ or even cared that there was someone called ‘Steve Jobs’.
Reunited – My Camera & I
What joy it is to hold my camera again