You’re always content when adversity is your yardstick — A few years ago, I’d gone camping with a friend. We’d just finished dinner, and I was doing my best to rinse out our cooking utensils in the feeble glow of my tent light. We didn’t have much water or detergent. After fussing about for a bit, my friend, seeing…

Based on Beatty’s Chocolate Cake by Ina Garten — I’ve recently learned to bake a few staples and I’m more interested in fine tuning those before moving on to others. As the father of a five year-old, chocolate cake tops that list. I’d tried chocolate cake before, and despite the fact that it was my first time baking anything…

Visualizing design feedback to encourage collaboration — This is something I’m doing more of, figured I’d share. As a design manager, I’ve always found it difficult to know exactly when to grab the marker from someone when offering feedback. There is the natural urge to just offer up a solution, or be so prescriptive that I might…

How I got veggies and spice into my child at an early age — Khichdi is an Indian stew of rice, lentils and vegetables. I cobbled together my own recipe when my daughter was a few months old, and five years later it is still a healthy staple I rely on to fill gaps in her nutrition. Several friends have asked me for the…

All of the flavor, none of the acidity — We ran out of beans, with 8 inches of snow outside and the mercury hovering around freezing. At times like these, we make chai. …

I’ve always struggled with the way devi is portrayed in imagery or sculpture. She looked nothing like my mother. And my mother was everything like her.

Can positive associations with the past make anything seem beautiful? — The short answer is yes (as I quickly learned from those that read a draft of this story 🙄) But since I’m not as well-read in these matters, I had to find my own way to it. My way was fun-ner. It all began with an itch to recreate one…