There are few things I love as much as a spring day. Something peculiar and magical happens when the multicolored blossoms -- cherry, plum, daffodil, tulip, hyacinth, lilac -- begin to wake from their long winter sleep. Even the rain seems hopeful, because with pounding downpour comes the promise of more flowers, new green leaves, fifty shoots where there were only five the day before.
As the environment changes, so too do the people in it. Friendliness emerges as layers of wool and down are shed. Tarps removed from outdoor patios signal to flocks of pastel-garbed girlfriends the time to enjoy pinot gris or sangria or the season's first, perfect mojito.
One day soon the magical day will come: the day I look outside and no longer see bare branches, or walk outside and feel winter's lingering chill on my bare arms. The last vestiges of the sleeping season will be swept away, replaced by flowers and ice-cream trucks; pretty girls in pretty dresses and lovers strolling arm in arm.
I never know the exact date, but that day is my favorite of the entire year.
-- Tara
Welcome everyone! This issue is full of cherry blossoms and poetry. I hope you'll stick around. Read. Enjoy. It's great to be back!
Remember, if there's something you love, feel free to drop the author an email. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.
--Tara
Look, Ma! A new issue of Joie de Vivre!
I'm really excited about this issue---please, spend some time looking around, reading... sending emails! We've all got joiedevivremag.com email addresses now, and would be ever so happy to receive notes at those addresses!
Thank you to each and every one of you readers. We may not know who you are, but we certainly appreciate the knowledge that you're out there!
--Tara
Something that's added a little personal joie to my vivre: my manuscript made it to the semi-finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest.
If you're so inclined--or just want to see a little of what I do beyond editing this site or writing about food (I write a lot about food!)--you can find the excerpt here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00121WEM8
Of course, you have to have an amazon.com account--including at least one past purchase; I guess that's how they keep people from making up a million fake IDs and stuffing the ballots--to leave reviews.
--Tara
I don't care if it's stereotypical.
I don't care if it's cliche.
I love chocolate.
Yesterday I had a particularly delicious cup of Belgian hot cocoa, where the steamed milk and the liquid chocolate (oh, so much better than Nesquik, by the way) were delivered separately, so chocolate could be added to the drinker's taste. I love the bitter edge to dark chocolate, strength to balance that delightful sweetness.
And, for now, I will content myself with the bar of aptly-named Emergency Chocolate sitting on the desk next to me. (For Immediate Relief Of: Chocolate Cravings, Lovesickness, Exam Pressure, Mild Anxiety and Extreme Hunger. Or so says the box! Thank you, Natalie!)
--Tara
In the prairies they call it a chinook. On the west coast it--well, it's basically called 'living on the west coast'. In New York I'd been expecting weather more like Montreal or Toronto--winter, winter, winter from November until May. Not so!
There is nothing more lovely than the gift of a spring day (or two or three) in the middle of January. I admit, I took them for granted when I lived in Vancouver. Here in New York, the past few days reached near-record highs. I went for several long walks, and had to hunt down a spring coat because all my winter jackets were too warm! It's gone back to seasonal temperatures now, but the past few days warmed me and served as a reminder that winter will end, and delicious, delightful spring will once again return!
--Tara
Every once in a while, a little thing happens to brighten my day. Yesterday it was coming home from a long Christmas break in Nova Scotia to find a gift waiting for me. A former boss of mine had seen a one-of-a-kind fridge magnet while out and about and thought of me. (It reads 'Life is too short to drink tepid tea'... very apt, I think, since I am currently enjoying a different gift: gorgeous Earl Grey from my mother-in-law.)
I couldn't have expected such a thing, and yet, there it was, enough to bring a smile to my face on a cloudy day; enough to put a little bounce in my step and add a little energy to my house-cleaning. (I'd like to know why houses seem to get so dirty when no one is living in them. It was clean when I left!)
So, thank you George, for your thoughtfulness and your friendship. I appreciate both beyond measure.
--Tara
In my article Christmas Snapshots I talked about the to-die-for shortbread my Gramma used to make. It is not easy to get it perfect, but it's worth trying, so... here it is:
Gramma's Whipped Shortbread
1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup icing suger
2 tbsp. corn starch
2 cups flour (scant)
dash of nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350.
Cream butter and sugar together. Add dry ingredients and mix by hand until well blended. Beat until creamy. Spoon onto ungreased baking sheet in teaspoons. Bake 15 minutes until golden.
Good luck!! Maybe if you are all very good, I will post her recipe for butter tarts later. Mmm. Butter tarts. Why is Christmas baking so delicious? It's as thought Christmas imbues regular baking with a kind of magic, rendering it a hundred times tastier than it might be, say, in the middle of July. I don't complain, I just eat. And then, in January, like everyone else, I go for more jogs.
-Tara
Although the website will only be updated every few months, I intend to use this blog as a place to record the little moments of joie de vivre that strike me in between issues of the magazine.
For now, I am happy you've found your way here. Please, stick around, read, enjoy!
-Tara
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