And I was not a blogger. Today I celebrated my 500th post on this fantastically frenzied blog I call home by heading on down to Coventry, the Park Slope of Cleveland. I packed up the boy, dropped Biggie Smalls at the grandparents and drove in my 50 mpg car to the Summer Arts Festival. The last time I hung out with Catcher on a one & one basis was probably back in Park Slope. When we lived in the stroller mecca of Brooklyn the boy & I headed out on the town regularly. We went to the park, we walked to the market, we went to the best cheese store ever and ate brie on the corner. We hung out at The Tea Lounge and read books on our fire escape. Life was grand. The fond memories of my son & I in Brooklyn are endless and tonight I added a Cleveland memory to the mix.
The fair was wizard (thanks Juno!) and the families were very much like the Brooklyn families I came to know and love. The exact opposite of families in the burb we currently reside in. Kids were dancing to street music, eating huge wedges of watermelon and waiting in line for super bad ass balloon animals from the creepy looking clown. Catcher had a blast. And so did I. I absolutely love his every breath. He might be the IS the coolest person I have ever known.
In honor of my 500th post I am going to give something away. That’s right people a PRIZE GIVEWAY is going to take place here on the CW.
Recently I have been kind of obsessed with my hair and I have been testing out flat irons like straight hair was going out of style. My most favorite flat iron on the planet today is the Hana Flat Iron. It is rockin’ and boy does it make your hair straight. Plus it comes in this super rad box and has a rubber mat that you can lay the iron on when it gets to hot. But my most favorite feature of the Hana is the temperature control. The instruction booklet comes with a chart based on hair type that directs you to the temperature you should set. I absolutely love this feature because I hate using flat irons that make your hair split endy and gross. This one does the opposite. My hair came out shiny and beautiful. And I’ve got the pics to prove it:
BEFORE HANA
AFTER HANA (ignore the crazy eyes)
Amazing right! Well it’s your lucky day. Leave me comments of your most and or least favorite thing about Chef’s Widow, the blog not the woman. I will pick at random by next Friday the 27th and send you a brand spanking new Hana Tourmaline Flat Iron from Misikko($189 value) case & all!!! Bonne Chance! (high school french really did teach me something:)
My favorite part of your blog is reading about your adventures with your children. I have recently become a mom myself and I your blog has given me the 411 on places to go with the kids, teething solutions (the celery is a GREAT idea, thanks) , and most of all it makes me feel a little less frazzled with all this new mommy stuff. Your posts are witty, entertaining and insightful. Thanks for giving this “stay-at-home mom” some inspiration!
P.S. It doesn’t hurt that I also love, love, love Becks.
What I love about this blog is it’s mix. Part life with kids, part foodie, part green and some NYC sprinkled in. It’s kind of the way my life is and it’s good to go on the jouney with others with similar interests. I really enjoy your writing and your take on it all.
PS – We’re taking our 5yo daughter to the Akron Zoo next Friday. The pictures of Catcher and the jellies totally sold me.
I like most about the blog the stories about food, kids, being green and truly believing in things that are important to you, like pit bulls, being green and family.
However, I do wish that you put up the recipes for EVERY SINGLE ITEM ON THAT DISH from your summer dinner posting! Everything looked amazing!! Even the chicken and usually I could care less about chicken.
I do think you need to move downtown and out of the burbs.
Your hair looks great!
~Rosemarie
2 things I love about your blog – When you talk about your chef (I’m a fellow chef widow!) and how totally in love with & grateful for your children & family (I’m also a fellow mom who gets to stay home with 2 amazing kids). Your blog is so much fun to read. Thank you for sharing your life with us!
) Merci beaucoup!
1 thing I don’t like is that there’s nothing under “about widow” . . . well, if there is, I can’t open it…!
P.S. I have curly hair and a flat iron that s-u-c-k-s a-double s (ooh, am I allowed to say that on comments? ;o) ) so that sure ia an awesome prize giveaway
Widow, I’m in debt to your blog. Beyond the endless variety of topics you post about you give me hope. My husband seems to think that we won’t be having kids for another 5 years, at least. That frightens me. The idea of having children scares the pants off me (and I’m a teacher!) The way you write about your husband, son, and daughter shows a tremendous amount of love and admiration for them. Just because I’m married to a chef doesn’t mean that I have to sacrifice a family. So the next time I get that uterine itch, I’m not going to pretend it’s not there. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this blog.
I love your not-local take on Cleveland. Love reading about what you and your chef and kids do around here – gives this new Clevelander ideas!
(BTW- Why oh why are you in the burbs?)
Also – Bar Cento was a great opening act for the concert on Wednesday!
I love how your blog shows your devotion to your family (and that you include your pets as family members!) while showing your rockin’ chick attitude. I’m about the same age as you and always thought the 2 things were exclusive. Thanks for proving they’re not!
Also – love the blog’s honesty, green bent, pictures, and the fact that it’s updated almost daily.
Least favorite thing – hmm… it’d be great if you added a favorite Cleveland restaurant list with links above your blogroll.
congratualtions! that is a huge accomplishment!!! i’m talking about the posts not the hair ; ) ha
there are many things i love about your blog, a few of them being:
1. you love ewan mcgregor and share delightful(ly yummy!) pics of him in kilts.
2. you have a black pug who is already greying, so do i.
3. you have passion regarding real issues and you’re not afraid to write
about it. (i like the antm post amoung many others…)
4. you love your family and enjoying being with them.
5. you post pics of delicious food.
and you drink pbr like a real girl!
Awww shucks. You guys are gonna make me cry. Scratch that. I am crying. Thank you for all your support. I would never be able to keep doing this if I didn’t have such rockin’ readers.
To answer your question about why we live in the burbs….
Basically in between our second NYC move we needed a house. We were prego w/ Catch and soon to be homeless. We are both from this town and found a great deal (or so we thought) on a house. We then moved back to NYC and rented our house in the burbs. A year later we moved back to this house and have been unable to even consider selling in this market. Right now our house is valued at less than what we bought it 3 years ago. So we’re stuck. Hopefully as we become more financially secure we will be able to take a loss &/or break even so we can MOVE the f out of the burbs!
Thanks for all the ideas I am going to work on a restaurant fave list and figure out why the about widow section no workey:)
Happy Friday!!!!
Lol. Well, this is my first time here so I can’t quite say what love or not (although, if my husband reads your blog, it must be good) but my he did in fact tell me about this flat iron this afternoon over the phone (he even sent me the link to the web-site) after I called him to tell him that MY flat iron literally burnt off a chunk of my hair today! I think I am still in shock, but at least I am laughing about it. Guess what I will be purchasing soon
Thanks for the recommendation.
I recently found you thru another blog (GGC) and I love it here! I love that you live in the Cleveland area….my husband and I are both from the area and I love the personal insight. Oh….and the picture of the bacon bre wasn’t bad either…….nothing like a little pork on the girls to capture ones attention…….your children are adorable……and who wouldn’t love a girl who loves a man who is all about FOOD! Keep up the humor!
I love the pics of your cute kids … love your honesty and you always make me laugh, smile or cringe ( with that bacon bra pic)
I love that you make time to blog about the things you love. I’m a new mom and barely have time to sleep
Congrats on the 500 posts…it’s really great!
Because I’m a hair nut, try using product before you flat iron if you don’t already. The iron will burn the product and not your hair! I use Aveda Brilliance – just a dime-sized amount.
I love the food pics, the no-nonsenseness (I think I made up a word) and your honest opinions about your kids, life and food.
Favorite thing about your blog – your honest sense of humor cracks me up, and you never forget the details. For example, I laughed my ass off at your mother’s day post pic of Jamie Lynn Spears “those shoes look comfortable”… especially when I noticed that you tagged it “pregnant ass hillbilly.”
Also, I second the family love and devotion/rocking chick attitude thing. It’s honestly pretty inspiring, considering all the people I know who lost their fun after marriage and kids.
Least favorite thing – your home food pics make me jealous.
Oh, like you think that dinky little flat iron is going to help that mess growing out of my head?
Don’t. Change. A. Thing.
We love Chef’s Widow! My husband actually found your blog and reads it ALL day, EVERY day while he is “working.” He comes home every day excited to show me a post or he calls to ask me if I have seen a new post on the blog. He says we are official “blog stalkers!” We are both Clevelanders and pretend to be “foodies.” We love going out to eat at local restaurants and trying everything new. We are totally obsessed with The Greenhouse Tavern and need more info. about the restaurant…can we be invited to the opening?! We love Bar Cento, Lola, Lolita, and reading about your crazy lives. What I enjoy the most is your honest humor on real life. It seems you don’t care what others think and are really just trying to live the best life possible, which is how more people should be. I love hearing the stories about your beautiful children and the adventures you expose them to. It just shows how many wonderful things there are to do in this city if you just get up off your butt and take your kids out! It’s just wonderful to see how grateful and devoted you are, and I love reading every little bit about it! Keep it coming!
I love your take on food, Cleveland, family and being married to a chef. I grew up in the inner ring ‘burbs and now live out of town. As someone who spends time in the local restaurants whenever I’m visiting family, I really enjoy hearing your views on life in Cleveland.
My favorite thing about your blog is how present you are in it. So many bloggers take refuge behind a veil of snark and forced pith and never share anything about themselves. In contrast, your blog features YOU– and although I’ve never met you, I feel like we could have a great chat over a beer. You seem to live your life with so much JOY in it, and I really admire you for it.
I can’t figure out how to contact ppl on here! I want to buy an instyler!