Author: jenharlan
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Thankful
It goes without saying that 2016 has been a bit of a year. From shootings and refugee crises and legends lost to the festering dumpster fire that was this year’s presidential election, there is no shortage of doom and gloom around us. Even in this season of twinkly lights and cocoa, it can be hard…
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Zelda’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
It’s that time of year again, y’all! The gifting season is upon us, a time of secret santas and white elephants and wrapping paper galore. I love to gift: Nothing gives me quite the same thrill as finding the perfect present for a particular person, the perfect blend of thoughtful and fun and unique all…
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20 Hours in America: Why We’re With Her
Dear readers, This week’s post was supposed to be a boozy one. I was going to make fall cocktails, most likely of the bourbon variety. I had plans to kowtow to Scout’s crazy anti-pumpkin sentiments and eschew that classic flavor for toasted marshmallow and maple and chocolate. But I, like many of you, have been…
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Just Keep Rolling Along
The first time I remember taking a train I was 19. My roommate’s grandfather had died that week. They were very close, and she was utterly devastated by the loss, so her boyfriend (at the time, my other best friend) and I decided to go down to Long Island for the funeral, for support. Now…
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Bless Your Heart, New York: Goldilocks and the Three Roommates
Dear New York, It’s been a minute since we’ve had a chat, just you and me. In general, you’ve been kind to me lately. Your air is finally starting to turn crisp, the hot garbage perfume of summer being swept out by the smoky leaf notes of my favorite season. You’ve given me karaoke nights…
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Required Reading: Volume Nine
My mother collects cookbooks. It started (she thinks) with the Moosewood Cookbook, purchased in March of 1983. She had always loved to cook, and to bake especially, learning hamantaschen and icebox cookies in her mother’s Pittsburgh kitchen. From one book, her collection grew, adding Jewish Cookery and Cookie Cookery (related in name only). When my…
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Southern Summer Reads
Summer is upon us, those hazy, humid days when the very air seems heavy and time oozes by like molasses. More than any other, this is a Southern season to us, made for iced tea and lemonade, juleps and swimming holes, lightning bugs and thunderstorms. And what does summer demand if not a summer read…
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Fourth of July Fruit Tart
The Fourth of July is just around the corner, and from Berkeley to Brooklyn folks will be celebrating our nation’s independence the American way: with lots and lots of food. Every cook-out is bound to have some of standards — your burgers, your hot dogs, your potato salad, maybe even an apple pie — but…
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Summer Picnic Essentials
The sun is out, the sky is blue, and the subway is an icebox. In New York, these signs can only indicate one thing: It is officially picnic season. Now we love to complain about how crowded this city is — all those people smushed in the cracks between a mishmash of buildings that would…
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Long Time Gone
Wednesday morning I woke up early. My weird work schedule has me basically nocturnal of late, so I was shocked to discover that a. 6:15 a.m. is an hour that exists and b. it’s light outside, at least in my corner of Brooklyn. I stumbled through the steps of getting ready: brush teeth, wash face,…
Zelda & Scout 