Tag Archives: love

Melissa Errico’s Spectacular Show at Bay Street

Melissa Errico’s Spectacular Show at Bay Street

Photo from www.melissaerrico.com

Photo from www.melissaerrico.com

Ron and I had the tremendous pleasure last night of seeing Melissa Errico, actress and superb singer, in a one-woman show at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor entitled “Funny! I’m a Woman with Children…“. Ron had seen her perform here in the Hamptons previously, but I had only heard her CD entitled Legrand Affair which was a spectacular collaboration with Michel Legrand, one of Melissa’s lifetime musical idols.

I was excited to see her in person as I have met her husband, Patrick McEnroe, a number of times through our mutual friend, Monte. Melissa and Patrick share a loving twenty year marriage and they have three beautiful girls – all of whom Melissa talked about in the show with great love and devotion.

Photo from www.melissaerrico.com

Photo from www.melissaerrico.com

To see Melissa in person was an absolute gift: sharing her warm personality, the intimacy of her stories about dating, romance, falling in love, motherhood, the importance of her girlfriends, marriage, career challenges, and so much more. She is tremendously talented and, in the words of Stephen Holden of the New York Times, “Melissa has the power to take a sumptuous Broadway ballad to the moon and back!” Her selection of songs was spectacular and we’re hoping that she records them on a CD in the near future so that we can savor the lyrics, the music, and her beautiful voice over and over again.

Enjoy the Journey!

I LOVE cookbooks and had a massive collection of them in my past life. Wherever I traveled, it seems I picked up a new cookbook and got to explore the foods and flavors of the places beyond the trip itself. I also chose cookbooks of places I hadn’t yet traveled, but LOVED the cuisines, like India, Thailand, Africa, the Mediterranean, etc. I kept a precious few cookbooks when I purged my belongings last year and gifted all of the remainder to charity – paying the incredible gift of amazing food with others who might not otherwise get to experience travel and/or a variety of cuisines of the world.

One of the best ways to get to know a country, a culture and its people is through food and drink. Everything we do socially is centered around them: a first date with drinks and dinner perhaps, holiday meals shared with traditional recipes and loved ones, bringing food to a family to offer comfort and support during difficult times, a business meeting over coffee or lunch, etc. Nourishing our bodies and our souls with good quality food is one of the most important things we can do to honor ourselves and to show our love for others.

It takes time to plan, shop for and prepare good food. The investment is worth it and cooking is one the things I truly love to do. It’s meditative and creative. Like anything, learning the basics and the techniques are important to make the process more enjoyable. Some people have a natural flare and others have to work at it. Absolutely no one knows it all and there is always more to learn.

I worked really hard to write my three cookbooks and I loved doing them. Been there, done that and wrote three books! Now, I’m enjoying preparing food from other people’s recipes or creating things in our kitchen from my imagination (or from memory of foods we’ve enjoyed). This is an exciting new chapter in my life and I’m enjoying trying new recipes immensely.

I’m travelling lighter these days with very few cookbooks but a world of recipes at my fingertips with the internet and some fabulous food sites. One of my favorites is the Cooking App from the New York Times. It has become one of my main sources of inspiration and an absolute delight to cook recipes from. We LOVE Melissa Clark and her fun, fresh approach to food. Her recipes are delicious and videos capture her delightful personality.

As I prepare and play with new foods and recipes, I promise to share them with you. I’ll share great food and hopefully save you the process of finding the best recipes, food and flavors as I find them. I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I delight in sharing it!

Moon Rising Over “Venus”

You just never know what you might see in Cabo! Last Thursday, my friend, Katie, told me about the super yacht that I saw north east of the Cabo San Lucas Marina on my way to play tennis with her, Andrea and Fadwa at the Esperanza resort. Turns out that it was “Venus”, the 257 foot super yacht that Steve Jobs had commissioned and started building in 2008 and never got to see completed before his death in October of 2011. Designed by Philippe Starck’s design company, Libik, and built by Feadship in the Netherlands, the yacht is now owned by Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs.

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Venus was, of course, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and desire. I’m not sure that this super yacht was appropriately named as this aluminum superstructure is far from beautiful (in my humble opinion!). She kind of reminds me of a floating Apple store – simple, functional, but certainly NOT sexy!

Gratitude

This is going to be a very short blog. I just wanted to acknowledge how grateful I am for the life I’m living here in Cabo with Ron. We wake up every morning to another perfect day and rarely with a set plan. After a lifetime of working , it is pure luxury to sleep until your body is rested and not to the annoying sound of an alarm clock.

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It occurred to me tonight as I was preparing a marinade for some steaks we’ll be sharing with our friend, Angeles, tomorrow. I needed fresh lemon juice and grabbed my flashlight and headed behind the house to pick the lemon I needed from our tree. For the Spaghetti Olio y Aglio I was preparing a bit later, I needed fresh parsley and walked out the front door onto our deck and clipped the fresh herb from our Tower Garden.

Our Tower Garden

Our Tower Garden

We just shared a wonderful week with our dear friends Peter and Sherry – one of the great perks of living in a tourist destination is that we always have lots of people visiting us. We have several more friends scheduled to arrive over the next few months and it is such a delight and privilege to share some of our life here with them.

It’s been a horrendous winter in Canada and parts of the United States, and here we are in Cabo in the middle of January living such a different and special life. I’m incredibly grateful for the love and life we share – thank you, Ron.

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve Fireworks

The Twelve Grapes of Luck (“las doce uvas de la suerte”) is a Mexican tradition that originated in Spain in the late 1800’s. The tradition involves eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight on New Years Eve. According to legend, this tradition leads to a year of prosperity.

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Another tradition in Mexico is wearing different colored underwear on New Years Eve for different wishes. People who want love and passion in the next year wear red underwear; for happiness and prosperity they wear yellow underwear; for health and well-being the choice is green underwear; for friendship and harmony they wear pink underwear; and they wear white underwear for hope and peace in the coming year.

I’m going to rush out today to buy panties that have red, yellow, green, pink and white AND I think I’ll wear a red bra with them tonight! Why not?

Here’s to a new year filled with love and passion, happiness and prosperity, health and well-being, friendship and harmony, as well as hope and peace!