With all the wonderful fresh berries I have been picking, I decided to make some fruit tarts!  Fruit tarts are a relatively easy dessert to make and truly look almost too good to eat.  My daughter and I have been having fun making different tarts.  Check out our first batch…. This recipe I found via […]

My dad, Hans Effgen immigrated to America from Germany as a very young boy. He and his mother Anna arrived in the US when she was just 28 and my dad only 1 years old. Here is the documentation of their arrival sailing from Hamburg on ship named, Reliance on May 13, 1925. Anna was […]

Lessons I have learned from our chocolate lab, Lucy… Who knew a dog could teach me a few things about how to live a well-balanced life but lo and behold, along came LUCY! Lucy was just 7 weeks when we brought her into our home…how cute, huh? Walking today with my furry girlfriend, I thought […]

I love granola.  It is fabulous on top of Greek yogurt for a hearty snack or even for a quick breakfast meal.  Granola is rich in calories so should be enjoyed in moderation.  My daughter Chelsea loves my homemade granola so I try to make a batch for her to take to NYC when she’s […]

I love picking fresh berries in the summer so when I stopped by Tangerini’s farm in Millis, MA this weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had red ripe raspberries ready to pick and big blueberries too! Picking raspberries is somewhat nostalgic for me as we had raspberry bushes in my yard growing […]

We headed to NYC this weekend to help my daughter, Chelsea with an upcoming move from the financial district to the Upper West Side.  It was my birthday weekend, so being in NYC was a bonus.  Friday, we walked down Wall Street toward the Seaport.   The New York Stock Exchange is always cool to […]

It’s a big job to be a Dad, and I am grateful that my husband Russ does a really great job at it. Russ has taught my kids many things simply by being himself and leading by example.  Russ says “just do the right thing.”  And even though “doing the right thing” isn’t sometimes what […]

  We arrived in Lake Placid, NY home of the ’32 and ’80 Olympics on Saturday, a day before our half marathon as part of Team in Training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Russ and I have been training and fundraising for this run for months now and we are as ready as we’ll […]

I love carrot cake.  In fact, my wedding cake was carrot cake. I made it myself and hand grated about a million carrots to make it, but it tasted great.  I frosted it with Bailey’s Irish Cream Frosting which was ridiculously amazing.  Recipe here!  Delicious. But I can’t be making carrot cakes for breakfast, so […]