Заходите к нам на ланч!

Что делают мамочки между уборкой, готовкой, занятиями спортом и маникюром? Да, вы угадали. Иногда они обедают. (В русском значении этого слова. Здесь, в Америке мы ланчуем, а обедаем мы вечером, т.е. ужинаем по-русски. Ну вобщем, вы меня понимаете.)

Вот и я на прошлой неделе обедала со своей французской подружкой Каролин. Она молодец, красиво накрыла стол на двоих.

Приготовила бобы и ... свинину. Боже, как она извинялась. "Я совершенно не подумала, должна была спросить. Мы, французы, едим все." Быстро достала бифштекс из холодильника, раз-два поколдовала и приготовила специально для меня мясное.

Мы так славно посидели, поели, попили, поговорили душевно и решили, что как-то редко мы собираемся. Я девушка решительная и сегодня мы продолжили обедать вместе. На сей раз у меня дома в компании еще двух замечательных подружек.

Вот, Юля, например, научила нас готовить замечательный азиатский салат. Делюсь рецептом дальше.

Берете вот такую вот упаковочку сердцевины брокколи,

добавляете  туда нарезанный и слегка поджаренный миндаль.

А затем вот такую вот вермишель.

Кромсаете ее прямо в упаковке, не открывая. Затем все же открываете ее и вскрываете находящийся там маленький пакетик с приправой. Добавляете в эту приправу 1 ст.л. соевого соуса, 2-3 ст.л. белого уксуса, 3-4 ст.л. оливкового масла и этой смесью заливаете вермишель. Оставляете это все на 2 часа пропитываться. А затем смешиваете вашу вермишель с брокколи и миндалем, солите и нахваливаете сами себя. Вкусно!

Так с и нами.
Оглашаю полное меню: Салат, куриные кошерные отбивные и яблочный французский пирог.

Все очень вкусно. Бутылочка белого вина, веселая интернациональная компания и всем хорошо.

Чему я и очень рада.

Bon appétit!

What do you read?

Do you also ever tell yourself, I wanna read more? And do you know this excuse, I don't have enough time?

I'm not a fast reader. So it takes time. Once I made a list (I love lists!) of books I read. I had this idea, you can measure even your life in books. When you read one book in a month, then ... You can count it. So we should be picky in what we choose to read.

Tell me what you read and I can tell you who you are. Does it work? I don't know.

At the moment I'm reading a book by Ken Follett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Follett "Winter of the World", although in German translation.

Friends of ours gave it to Daniel and who is reading it first? Ya, ya. That's the thickest book so far I have ever read, more than 1000 pages (!). I like it a lot, it's very exciting. He writes about the time when Nazis took over Germany, but from different perspectives: families in Germany, America and England.

Usually I'm reading two books at the same time. One of them I have on my night table and read it before sleeping time (often 10 pages each time. Oh my God, I'm so particular. Who's not?). Another one I have in my everyday bag. I read it wherever I have time or when I have to wait for something. Actually it's from the popular Ukrainian author Oles Busina who writes about Ukrainian history. He has a  non-orthodox view on it.

I prefer real printed books. My daughter J. reads on her Kindle. We gave it to her as a New Years gift once. For a couple of months she didn't use it, but then she started to use it and reads now only on her Kindle. And she reads a lot. My son D. doesn't read at all. I mean, he reads a lot of stuff on the Internet, but not literature. Jo. loves to read and F., as you know, is going to be a writer.

Everyone is different. And it's ok.
One of my friends is a member of a book club, she is very literate. Another of my friends is reading something about impotent men (What? I was asking her. What would that be good for? A waste of time in my opinion). A third friend of mine starts to read in the middle of a book and, if it's interesting, goes back to the begging.

The main thing is to read in general. Read, think and feel.

Visiting Philadelphia

Thanks to Martin Luther King we had a day off at school yesterday. He had a dream. Us too. So we used this long weekend to visit the birthplace of the American Constitution. Yes, we went to Philadelphia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia.

On the way

Philadelphia is an about 2 hours drive from us or as I lately saw in a brochure, 1h20 minutes with a train from NYC. It's the fifth-most-populous city in the United States with the population of about 1.500.000. In addition to what I mentioned above, Philadelphia is known for many things: it was once a temporary capital of the US during the time when Washington D.C. was under construction; concerning gross domestic product it ranks 9th place in the world and 4th in the country, and is also famous for its art and culture as well as their cheesesteak and soft pretzels.

We left in the morning, arrived at noon, checked in at the hotel, ate a little and went to our goal destination, Barnes Foundation http://www.barnesfoundation.org.

Barnes Foundation is an awesome art gallery, with an overwhelming collection of impressionist and modernist artists. Our friends visited this museum twice and highly recommended it to us. It's really very impressive and we enjoyed the tour very much. But keep in mind: you have to book tickets in advance, because these are tickets by time. You get your time entry. Ours was 4 pm and it's a little tight, cause the museum closes at 6 pm. But I'm thinking to go over there once more with my husband by train, just for one day.

Everybody is looking different after seeing so much art...

After the museum we got a dinner; nice and delicious. And later in the evening Igor and I went for drinks.

The next day started with a breakfast at a hotel, which was a disaster. Not enough plates and cutleries, disgusting food etc. But what can we do? Take it easy! We took a taxi and drove to the historical city. I wanted to visit the Antique Row to do some shopping for our home, but due to the holiday everything was closed. Nevertheless we enjoyed the nice things we saw.

A smart way to storage and display

I have a weakness to yellow homes...

See a sign on the steps? A slip of the foot you may soon recover,
but a slip on the tongue you may never get over. That's true.

It was a cold day, so visiting the Independence Hall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Hall with a guide was a good occasion to have a small break, get some warmth and learn a little bit of history.

A room where a Declaration of Independence and Constituton
were drafted and signed

After all of the walking and seeing we were ready for a lunch. And we got a very good one at Amada. http://www.amadarestaurant.com (thanks to yelp!). Believe it or not, but we got a full menu with one of choice appetizer, two main courses and dessert for 20$ per person. Is it not great? And they counted J. and F. as one person. It took us 106$ for a dinner for 5 persons, wine included. Yahoo! And it was extremely delicious!

I have some more pics for you, to get a spirit.

One funny place. Mamas and kids are doing some yoga together

Another funny name

Library

A skyscraper. They have some more.

The city is full of different street signs and monuments.
And this one always lets our hearts bit higher.

We enjoyed the trip. And you? Got a wanderlust?    

Thoughts about blogging

Well, evidently I have this predisposition to self-digging. So last days I was thinking hard (what a novum!, my husband will say). But I mean, really hard. Some of you who read my previous post, would probably notice it too. I read tons of advices and posts from all the big bloggers. This engenders much more doubts and thoughts, that pull me down. On the other hand there are really some (many!) good things I learn.

What did I learn?

As a blogger you have to find out your focus. It's a really hard stuff.

As I started to write here (back in October 2010), it was just for fun, to keep our friends in Germany on with our life in US, our adjustments and all the differences between the two countries. So obviously I started to write in German.

After a while I was thinking, how about all the friends in Ukraine and my mom, who don't speak German? (The matter, that my mom doesn't have either internet or computer at home, didn't really play a role in my considerations:). At the beginning I wanted to translate my posts, but you know...

And then, when you live in a country, you start to use their language too (really:)!) So one day (One day, baby, we'll be old, oh baby...) I just started to mix my posts: English, Russian and German.

I was not really thinking or calculating, if it's right or not. It is just how I'm feeling.

But all the good people on the web are saying, you have to have the rules. Otherwise it can inhibit your growth. And who wants this? Nobody.

So, I think, language is an important question. Even if my English is far away from ... jah, from let's say, Mark Twain's English, I still love the language and I definitely (yesterday we saw Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman. You remember? Definitely!:)) can improve myself. So I will stick with English.

But I can't and won't give up my German and Russian posts. Because it's also about me.

As I wrote my previous post, I noticed that two of my last posts in German were on 12th each month. And you know, I love the numbers. So, I will keep going. And 12th of each month can be a German day. Yeah!

And I will find two Russian days. Yeah!
How do you like this?
I think, it's great and beneficial for all of us. It gives me a structure and you know what you can expect from me. That's fair.

Yeah, everything fine and good, but back to focus. What could be the dumb focus? I thought and thought and thought. And I came to the conclusion, that people are my focus. Yeah, you hear right! People! Because it's what I like mostly, really and from the bottom of my heart. One day I want to start to write about interesting people (Well, Penelopa says, everybody is interesting, when you ask the right questions).

You know, America is a country of volunteers. So I hope to find some of them here. But of course also otherwise. The first one is a bravest one.

And probably I will put some categories for my posts.

So blogging turned out to be a good thing for me. Once I wanted to give up, I even did a break for some months, but I came back and still stick to it. It started for fun, it is still fun, but now I like it. Do you feel the difference? There are some topics I am really itchy to blog about, like sex or relationship, but my husband will kill me after that and my children will look at me like I'm an alien. I have to find out how to deal with this censore.

Anyway, I'm in a good mood and going to renew some things here. And you know, what? Did I tell you that? I love you! And so thankful, you read me. It means so much for me! And when you want to leave a comment here, you know, it's not a shame:).

Love you!

Sticker-inscription in my guest room

Die Qual der Wahl

Die Qual der Wahl kann so was von lähmend sein. Alles scheint möglich zu sein. Wie soll man da eine Entscheidung treffen können?

Mit meinen 40 (na ja, mit einem kleinem plus) fühle ich mich so unsicher, wie mit 17 zuletzt. Man hat die Schule fertig, die Uni, eine Karriere, einen Mann, ein Haus (oder noch zwei), vier Kinder. Macht das einen glücklich? Eigentlich schon. Aber trotzdem fühlt man sich irgendwie unwohl, nicht alle Träume sind ausgeträumt, man hat noch so wenig gemacht und gelebt. Sind das alles Anzeichen einer Midlife-Crisis? Kann sein, macht aber alles nicht einfacher.

Ich denke, mich plagen die gleichen Zweifel, die viele Mütter nach einer Babypause erleben. Es ist verdampft schwer, zurück zu kommen. Wo? Und wie?

Man (nein, nicht Mann! Man ist die Frau) zweifelt an eigener Kompetenz und Qualifikation. Sie ist unsicher, was sie jetzt leisten kann, wie belastungsfähig sie ist, wie sie den Spagat zwischen dem Job und der Familie schaffen wird.

Ich will arbeiten, wo es mir Spaß macht. Aber was macht mir Spaß? Das ist so schwierig herauszufinden. Und für eine, wie mich, mit einem breiten Interessenspektrum, noch schwieriger.

Was mit Sprachen? (Was genau?)
Schreiben? (Klingt gut, aber bin ich gut genug dafür?)
Basteln? (Macht Spaß!)
Haus dekorieren? (Die Leute meinen, ich könnte das)
Vereinte Nationen? (Mein Kindheitstraum)
Bank? (Traum mit meinen 20-er)
Gemeinnützige Tätigkeiten? (Ja, aber wie?)
Kinder? (Habe eigentlich viel mit den eigenen zu tun...)
Schach? (Ich könnte, aber irgendwie ... )
Wieder zur Uni? MBA Programm machen? (Hat zuletzt mein Mann vorgeschlagen)

Und solange man ist sich nicht sicher, was man machen soll, kann man auch nicht so viel machen, richtig? Irgendwie dreht man sich im Kreis.

Zuletzt habe ich gedacht: Ich brauche einen Mentor! Jemanden, der mir helfen kann, mich wieder selbst zu finden. Kennt jemand jemanden? Grade gestern, bei Penelope Trunk http://blog.penelopetrunk.com, einem vor Kurzem entdeckten Blog, gelesen: in jeder Lebensphase braucht man mindestens drei Mentoren. Und ich habe keinen! Eine Katastrophe!

Und solange ich keinen habe, muss ich wohl selbst zu (m)einem werden. Oh! Vielleicht ist das? Mentor für andere? Mit Ratschlägen für andere bin ich doch wirklich gut!

Der erste Schritt - jeden Tag was tun! Deinem Traum entgegen. Und wenn du viele Träume hast, dann tue auch mehr.

In diesem Sinne

Wie die Zebras in dem Schnee, so verwirrt: Was machen? Wo gehen?
High line park in NYC

Go Hoboken!

Visiting and exploring new places is staying high-scored on my agenda for this year. Before going somewhere far away, let's start to discover what we have in our neighborhood. So yesterday my friend Katja and me were stranded in Hoboken http://www.hobokennj.org/visit/.

The name Hoboken sounds a little bit weird, isn't it? But the city with the population about 50.000 people is very modern and vibrant. From Hoboken you have a breathtaking view to Manhattan skyline.

It's also known as a place where the first baseball game took place.

The waiting room of the train station, built in 1907, is also very famous and considered one of the finest in the country. Actually it was closed due to damage the Hurricane Sandy caused. So sad!

But it was the first time I saw a train station in the US. Somehow it looks amateur, not real, like a game or mini-copy. Anyway, we have trains here!

We walked down the Washington street, which is really nice, with lots of cute boutiques and a whole range of nice restaurants: israeli, portuguese, thai, chinese, swiss, italian.. We even passed by an Old German Bakery, where I couldn't resist to buy a bread and real bretzels (american pretzels is a poor version of it. Sorry, friends!).

Did you notice, when you are traveling somewhere, everything seems so nice, different and lovely? I liked this book store, which features puppet shows and other activities for kids.

We browsed an antique store with a very lovely stuff.

Watched here and there,

ate sushi at japanese bistro and drove home. 30 minutes back to reality, which is actually also not so bad:).

Ho and bo and ken - see you then!

 

Born to eat?

Today I was looking over the pictures I did last time and found out, pretty much of them were made during the eating process: eating at home with the guests, eating at restaurants, Starbucks etc. I guess, it became my natural reflex: we are sitting at the table and I'm pooling out my phone to make a picture...

Anyway, here I want to share with you some of these kind of moments.

Last Saturday I drove Jonathan to his first lesson at Lee Strasberg Institute (You remember? He liked it by the way, especially learning fake fighting, dancing and making new friends:)). Union Square in NYC is full of life and one of the most exciting places in the city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Square_(New_York_City).  So, after dropping off Jonathan Jessi, Fioirna and me were looking for a place to eat. The choice felt pretty easy. Max Brenner, a chocolate place http://www.maxbrenner.com/. Jessi was visiting it once on a birthday party of her school friend and liked it.

We stopped by.

We ate.

We drunk.

Can you read this stunning signing?
Drink your coffee in a decent way. Don't forget you are an adult.
Then lick the chocolate leftovers to keep the child in you forever.
Is this not adorable?

We paid.

To make the math easy for you, they counted already ahead:
15%, 18%, 20% tip. So smart!

And we liked it.

Next eating station is Kiku in Alpine, just 10 minutes from us. It's a japanese restaurant, great place for family visits or friend companies.

The cooks make a nice stove show just in front of you. They throw vegetable slices and you try to catch them with your mouth, they make fire and a toy fireman deletes it, they are playing with the knifes etc. It is really fun and the kids love it!

And the food is also good.

Starbucks. "Everybody knows... " (Leonard Cohen, I can't help me:)) A place to get a coffee, to eat, to work, to charge your phone and to read...

Article about parents gifts for teachers.
It made me hard thinking, should I adjust, returning back
to Sowjet corruption practices? I reject it in a radical way,
no gifts for teachers at all

Our famous Angelique, a reliable partner for every occasion.

What a man! Look at his fashion shorts! In winter!
I like this kind of self-conviction and freedom.

Honestly I have to admit that in the last time Angelique is getting a competitor. Farmhouse in Cresskill became another good place to meet and hang out with the friends.

One of our favorite places in the City to stop by for a great panini and cup of cappuccino is Via Quadronno http://viaquadronno.com/.

And the last but not least are drinks and meals at home.

Daniel's pomegranate creation from a book, The 4 hour chef.
Serving in the crystal glasses, my birthday's gift.
I like how it looks! It also tastes great, when you are wondering 

During the holidays we got an unexpected visit from brother of my german israeli friend Shirley. Lior was on the way from Stuttgart to Dominican and had a short stop by in New York. And here we are.

So, I think at least now you are inclined to get something delicious and tasty, right? Of course, if you are not constrained by your diet new year resolutions:).

Bon appetite!

В лесу родилась елочка, в лесу она росла...

"Моя мама казала", как Новый Год встретишь, так он и пройдет. Даже не знаю...

Первую половину 31го я отсыпалась, отвечала на мейлы, всех поздравляла, звонила. Потом приехала Джессика, два дня она каталась с подружкой на санках. И поехали мы в Manhattan, очень уж Игорю хотелось. Times square был уже оцеплен полицией и кордонами, вплоть до 60х улиц. Нам удалось запарковаться на 61й/ Broadway (вы понимаете, да, какое это счастье?!) и пошли мы пробираться сквозь толпу и заслоны. Ветер, холод, полицейские, массы людей, а мы им навстречу, вперед. Куда? К чему? "Поближе к шару". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square_Ball. Представьте, live там находиться около миллиона человек, а миллиард наблюдает за "взрывом" шара" по телевизору. Люди занимают на площади места с утра, стоят там по 14 часов. Да уж...

Очень скоро стало становиться не очень так комфортно. Полицейские создают заборами сектора. Как только один наполнился, его сразу закрывают, и все. Следующий блок. В какой-то момент мы остановились и толпа за нами в течение секунд заполнила все свободное пространство. У меня сразу сработала программа на выход. Еле-еле выбрались. Полицейские: Выход налево. Идешь налево: Выход направо. Мы эту историю уже на Halloween проходили, ученые. Надо не реагировать, а просто пытаться пройти через заграждения. Что в итоге успешно и сделали.
Не знаю, опыт так себе, сомнительный, на любителя. Кстати, первый раз слышали, как русский полицейский богатырского сложения поздравлял кого-то по телефону. Славно так.

Приехали домой уже около 8. А дома, сами понимаете, не убрано. И к столу тоже особо ничего нет. Тут оказывается, что Игорь простудился на морозе и не очень себя чувствует. Джесси устала. Даник просто хочет спать. А Йонику с Фиориной и на самом деле положено отдыхать. Но есть еще женщины в русских селеньях. Начинаю убирать. Убираю-убираю. Потихоньку подключается то один, то другой. Вобщем, убрали неплохо. Стол накрыли, что есть. Мило получилось. Успели поругаться, потом сделать вид, что помирились. Налили яблочный сайдер проводить Старый год. Написали и заклеили в конвертики пожелания-мысли на следующий год. (В следующем году откроем и посмотрим, что исполнилось и о чем думалось...). А Новый год встретили уже под Вдову Клико (ее остатки добавила сегодня в ванну:)).

А, и подарки от Деда Мороза. Конечно, как же без них. В этом году скромно так вышло. Книга для Дана, будильник для Джесси, электрическая зубная щетка для Йоника и Леонард Коэн для Игоря (Мы все еще находимся под впечатлением от его концерта. "First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin"), блокнотик для Фиорины. Ну я блистала в комбинезоне, купленном на распродаже в Victoria's Secret за 49 долларов. И была довольна!

Посмотрели немного CNN шоу с Times Square, где ведущая Kathy Griffin недвусмысленно (и неоднократно!) опускалась на колени перед Anderson Cooper. Смешно, но немного дешево.

Какие выводы делаем?
Не напились, не наелись (назовем это так:)), - это плюс.
Не сильно потратились на подарки - это как посмотреть:), но все же, наверное, плюс.
Было не так уж сильно весело - жить можно.
Поездка в Нью Йорк - минус.
В семейном кругу - плюс.

А уже через 3 дня все кажется не таким драматичным и в целом все равно плюсом.

Ну вот такой я оптимист по натуре, и год пусть будет тоже с плюсом!