Posts categorized as Holiday

You’ve seen Anthony Medina’s byline in the paper. He’s one of The Wave’s beat reporters. But he’s also an expert Coquito-maker, and this is the second year his family has been selling their version of the holiday beverage. In Spanish, Coquito means little coconut. It’s a traditional Christmas and New Year’s drink that originated in Puerto Rico. It’s made with Puerto Rican rum, coconut milk, cream of coconut, and sweetened condensed milk. Other spices and flavoring can be added like ginger, anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, or egg yolk. A few weeks […]

I normally host Easter Sunday for my family and friends, and right now, I’d be gearing up for the party – ordering the paper goods, getting all the soda, liquor and wine, buying the canned antipasto, olives, artichokes and roasted red peppers.  Today and Saturday I would’ve been on my feet, cooking nonstop in preparation for Sunday. It feels strange to not be doing it this year. To mitigate this feeling of “Easter is canceled”, I pulled out the bins of decorations from the basement and made the house look […]

I was a little overzealous after my successful baking venture with homemade pretzels a few weeks back. This past weekend, I decided to bake something for the Easter season, to get into the spirit. It would cheer me up, since obviously, I had to cancel my annual Easter Sunday Party. I thought it would be fun to bake Italian Easter bread (Pane Di Pasqua). This bread is symbolic of the season.The eggs represent rebirth and renewal. The bread, the Body of Christ, and the sweetness is for celebrating after the […]

Oxalis regnellii, better known as the Shamrock Plant is a lovely little one that will bring bright color (and maybe good luck) into your home well past St. Patrick’s Day. The Shamrock Plant reaches a max height of 8 inches tall. The leaves are clover-shaped and in the spring, fall, and winter, small delicate flowers appear. There are over 570 species with a rainbow range of color, from bright and dark greens to the sought-after burnt oranges and dark purple foliage. Exposure to the sun will cause these color nuances in […]

It’s true. I started decorating for Christmas inside the house a week before Thanksgiving. Don’t judge! I like to take my time and enjoy the experience. But alas, Christmas traditions never fail and I traditionally have terrible luck with Christmas lights. This year, my indoor tree lights broke. Only half the string would light up. What made this so frustrating was that I bought two new sets only last year. I thought I’d be all good. How do these things break so easily?! The Grinch in me set in. I […]

After receiving this plant follow my care instruction in this article. Remove it’s decorations after the holiday to reveal a beautiful living tree in need of your attention. Sometime in August I was walking back from the gym when my neighbor Brady called me over. “Hey, you gotta sec?” He runs upstairs and brings down a very sad looking Charlie Brown type tree. “If anyone can save this, it will be you.” I was touched Brady thought of me as a plant healer! On inspection I knew this would be […]

Season two of Mindhunter* was released in August on Netflix and I binge-watched it. The show is centered around the new-at-the-time Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI, formed in the late 1970s. The main characters interview imprisoned serial killers to understand what makes them tick, in the hopes of solving contemporary cases. The show is so good. After I disposed of that series, Netflix recommended Criminal Minds – 10 seasons of brutal serial murder cases. It’s similar to Mindhunter, as it’s about the same Behavioral Science FBI Unit, but based […]

I went to school on Long Island and it was mostly Italian and Irish Catholic kids. There were a few Jewish and Indian children but to be frank, I wasn’t very aware of our differences, in particular with respect to religious beliefs. Of course, we read the Old Testament in CCD, but it didn’t click. I was very aware, though, that we got a bunch of days off from school because of Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah being one of them. And they say the school districts on Long Island are […]

  Todd’s Dad’s’ Christmas Cactus Last week I wrote about the iconic poinsettia many give to family and friends over the holidays. This week, I’m discussing the other seasonally appropriate gift-plant: the Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera). Like it’s holiday competitor the poinsettia, you can buy a Christmas Cactus  just about anywhere and since the holidays have passed — they’re on sale now! The plant is called a Christmas cactus because a drop in temperature is needed to produce blooms, therefore it’s most showy in December. It’s a welcome surprise to see […]

How many poinsettias do you have in your living room right now? It’s custom to gift these lovely plants to friends and family during the holidays. You can find poinsettias just about anywhere this time of year – the supermarket, CVS, the hardware store, etc. Most of us throw them out when they start to lose leaves and look leggy. With some effort, you can learn how to care for this plant properly and enjoy it year round! I’ll share some tips and care instructions with you, but first, some […]