Tax-time grimace – and gratitude

Tax time has rolled around once again, and before I raise my anguished voice to harmonize with your anguished tax-time voice, let me take a moment to thank the Internal Revenue Service for a memory that changed my life.

It was 1970, and I was just finishing up my Bachelor of Arts degree at Western Illinois University, about to start a career as a high school teacher. I was married with a very pregnant wife, and Barrington High School, where I had completed my student-teaching, had offered me a teaching job once my degree was complete.

Being productive

With recent reports out of Hollywood, studios may very well have run out of ideas. True, real films don’t come from producers but from writers and directors with actual vision that get snatched up from festivals and the like. But the news of Disney remaking Moana in live action after only seven years and WB reimagining Harry Potter as a streaming series has me reeling.

The root of the matter: the importance of quality soil

A strong foundation is important in many aspects of life. Giving children a strong foundation in the form of family helps them as they transition into adulthood. Sleeping on a mattress that is comfortable gives us the foundation at night for rest so that we may have prosperous day. Our homes literally rely on a strong foundation for their integrity.

A vine-covered hacienda

A restaurant’s life is a very complicated one. It has its ups and downs, highs and lows, with new owners or management in control. Years ago, we loved a nearby Mexican restaurant, but as time went by, it fell out of favor. We recently received a letter bragging how good it was, so we decided after 26 years to give it a visit once again. We are referring to El Molino Mexican Restaurant in Carpentersville.

Too difficult to even try: a conspiracy

This week I made spanakopita for the first time. It is a savory spinach pie consisting of spinach, feta cheese, egg, and fresh herbs, surrounded by flaky layers of phyllo dough. I love it.

Given the choice, I will always choose a spanakopita appetizer or entree at a restaurant or party.

Well, I can’t tell you why she was ordered to change seats, because as I write this, I am in the Free State of Florida, as the governor calls it without a hint of irony.

Family Memories

Once upon a time, the Dining Duo received a recommendation from one of their loyal readers requesting us to review a specific restaurant. Honestly, we have never heard of the restaurant he requested. Nancy added it to our long list of potential articles. Not being in the mood for anything ethnic, we decided to give this good old fashioned family restaurant a try.

Speak evil

True crime as a genre is having a bit of a moment. It isn’t as if this form of entertainment ever really goes away. But the tidal wave is hitting its crest. Netflix’s Dahmer seems to be a tipping point in terms of wondering where the line is in terms of exploiting murderers as entertainment while dragging victims’ families through the mud. Can we talk about horrifying real topics with double digit body counts without feeling exploited. Enter Hulu’s Boston Strangler.

Being just one chapter of someone else’s Great Loop

A couple weeks ago I was in the tiny town of Goodland, at the eastern tip of Marco Island in Southwest Florida. Goodland is a quirky little town, and you never know what oddball adventure you’ll encounter there. And this visit didn’t disappoint.

It was a Saturday, and a small art fair and music festival was under way. I strolled past the booths of ceramics, paintings, and nature photography as John Prine lyrics echoed through the park. Savory scents of burgers and brats wafted on the air, and I ambled down to a small aluminum floating pier rocking in the salty backwaters between the mangroves and sea grapes.

Old dogs, new tricks

There are times as a critic when media that is currently available is subpar. In lulls, you just have to wade through it and hope for the best. As much as the public might think that we just love to eviscerate, it is just soul-crushing as you see wasted potential. These all can’t be award winners though.

An unassuming cafe

Over the years we received quite a few recommendations for restaurants to review. The one that keeps popping up is an unassuming cafe on Route 20. We must admit we have driven past this café numerous times, but never gave it a second thought. People have told us over and over about the broasted chicken, their Friday fish fry, and the German fare, so we finally decided to give Café 20 in Marengo a try.

Top 10 gardening trends of 2023

Recently, Chris, my husband, and I enjoyed breakfast at a new restaurant: Maple and Hash in Pingree Grove. While the food was delicious, what I liked even more was that it felt like we were experiencing a new trend in dining. The exposed beam ceilings, painted farm silhouettes, and a coffee bar were all beautiful and welcoming. For an hour or so on a Saturday morning we were part of a refreshing change.

Making do: the food of discovery

Every household probably has a go-to meal they whip up when there’s “no food in the house.” Maybe for you it’s a pb&j. A bowl of cereal can be nice. Some pasta with a little olive oil, garlic, and lemon, perhaps?

Giving credit where it’s overdue

“It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them,” Mark Twain once said.

Sure, easy for him to say: A man known the world over, credited as being America’s greatest writer. That’s like Sylvester Stallone or The Rock telling us that muscles aren’t everything. Swill like that is hard to swallow when you’re one of the huddled masses yearning to be honored for something. Anything.

Time for a spring fling

Here we are again, on the precipice of a new season, and I open my closet doors each morning and immediately hate all my clothes.

It would be so much easier if I could just decide the night before what I was going to wear the next day, but for some reason, I never get around to it. That means often feeling completely defeated first thing in the morning.

Mornings are for coffee and playing happy music to get revved up for the day ahead. Mornings shouldn’t be about defeat.

How to care for your avian neighbors

Recently our family grew by 4 paws. Annie, an English Springer Spaniel puppy joined our household. She has taught me just how beautiful the frost is on the ground as the sun is rising, to appreciate the joy in running through 4 inches of freshly fallen snow and to listen, really listen when birds are chirping nearby. She is acutely away of noises, that frankly, I would not really even hear. This has brought a greater appreciation of all of the birds in our area, even during the winter.

Birds play a substantial part in keeping our ecosystem healthy. They pollinate plants, disperse seeds, control pests, act as an early warning system for the spread of disease, distribute nutrients, protect wetlands and much more. So much more that they are considered crucial for people and the planet to thrive. Preserving bird diversity helps everyone.

Be careful what you wish for

For years, and years, and even more years, Panera Bread has teased us with a location supposedly opening in the famed restaurant row on Route 47 in Huntley. The paint on the sign announcing this new location is rapidly fading, but our hopes have not. We just could not wait any longer, the suspense was killing us. If Panera Bread will not come to us, the Dining Duo will go to Panera Bread, and that’s just what we did. We jumped into the Mini-Mobile and headed out to the Panera Bread in Algonquin.

Ask an Angel: March 9, 2023

I am writing to you about a senior in my life who has recently lost her sense of purpose. Annie is a beloved member of our community, but she has been feeling lost and unmotivated lately. She’s expressed to me that she doesn’t feel like she has a reason to get up in the morning anymore and that she doesn’t know what to do with her time. Annie has always been an active person, but lately, she seems more withdrawn. She told me in confidence that she feels extremely lonely and isolated.

Head for the trees when it’s all too much

The immediate neighborhood serves as a satisfactory landscape on weekdays for morning and evening walks with the dog, but on the weekend, the forest calls. As soon as I step onto a curved path winding through the trees, my lungs begin to tingle; I gulp the air laced with the perfume of soil and wood and leaves in various stages of birth, life, and decay. I can’t get enough of it! Even bare branches teem with life.

Secret garden: how tiny plants can reinvent your indoors

Caring for houseplants has always been a bit of a struggle for me. This winter, I have tried to educate myself as to how to care for them properly. Thankfully I found the book Tiny Plants: Discover the joys of growing and collecting itty-bitty houseplants by Leslie Halleck. It is a mix of beautiful pictures, funny observations and wonderful advice. For this column, I am interviewing the author.

Welcome to the least-sexy days of the year

Today is February 23 — one of the least-sexy days of the year.

Of course, “sexy” can be defined in different metaphorical ways. If by “sexy” you mean “important or exciting,” then there’s plenty of sexy to go around on this date in history.