Em-i-lis 2.0

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Welcome! Bonjour! Benvenuto e ciao! Willkommen! Welkom!

About this fantastic new site: It was designed by the inestimable Elan Morgan who is the multi-talented woman behind Schmutzie, a blog I love dearly. If you appreciate thoughtful, honest, excellent writing and photography and cats, you should visit Schmutzie and follow Elan there or on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. 

Em-i-lis is still the same site you've come to love but I want to walk you through the new features:

  1. Recipes are now tagged and categorized for much broader, more user-friendly search and perusal. Let's use my Bucatini with Caramelized Shallots, Brussels Sprouts and Speck as an example. You'll find this in Pastas and also in Lunch and Dinner, categories in the drop-down menu in Recipes up above. Say you find it and then want to see what other recipes include Brussels sprouts. Simply click on "Brussels sprouts" in the tag area following the recipe, and you'll then be brought to a compilation of all Em-i-lis Recipes that contain B. sprouts. Awesome, right?!
  2. Community Questions: In the right side bar, you'll see a gray box with Community Questions written in it. Submit any burning question to me and I'll answer it! All Community Questions and Answers can be found by clicking on the live link in the side bar OR by going to the Recipes drop-down menu and clicking on Community Questions.
  3. Classes & Reviews: If you are interested in scheduling a jam- or pie-making class (or another how-to in which you're interested) or attending one I'm teaching locally, check the Classes & Reviews section for contact info and upcoming events. You are also welcome to leave a review if you've taken a class of mine but not reviewed it or to read those previously submitted.
  4. More Writing: This section includes Featured Writing Elsewhere (my work published on HuffPo, BlogHer and so forth) as well as the Essays I've published here on Em-i-lis.
  5. The badges in my right side bar show you where I've been published or featured; the Huffington Post badge links you directly to my author page there.

I'm thrilled with all this new, more interactive functionality and hope you enjoy it too. Let me know!

Fire bottom friend and courage

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In college, one of my very best friends was a flame-haired girl named Trisha. We met early during freshman year, two of the six girls who’d been transferred from other, less-preferred dorms, onto the all-boys fourth floor of the ever-hopping Bobb-McCulloch.

You can imagine that we were not dissatisfied with our placement.

We lived across the hall from each other, if memory serves. It might have been kitty-corner but it doesn’t matter because by winter break, we’d already been to her house in MN for Thanksgiving, tried to convince her Chicago-based aunt and uncle that we had ESP so tight was our bond, and smoked something fun before scarfing Lucky Charms and mooning over boys from her dorm room window.

Trish was always on the go. She was exercising, buying cases of Diet Pepsi and golden delicious apples (double yuck in my opinion), acing classes and taming that hair. Unlike me, she’d attended a terrific high school and didn’t find college all that challenging. I, meanwhile, was not studying hard enough to overcome the profound state of way-behind in which I’d arrived nor did I care because I was finally having ALL THE FUN.

I learned so much from Trish, and we have what feels like infinite memories of laughter, travel, tearful conversations of sharing and support, bad breakups, weddings, her allergic reaction from eating too much shrimp while visiting me in Louisiana, and that long-ago toke. One of the many nicknames I bestowed upon her freshman year was “Fire Out My Butt” (FOMB) because she always moved with such speed and purpose.

At Northwestern, which abuts Lake Michigan, beautiful paths wend around the water and through campus. We would often rollerblade along them on sunny afternoons (another thing Trish taught me), me always in her wake. Once, as Trish and her red curls flew ahead of me, we approached a spot where if you didn’t turn left or right, you’d go into one of the lake’s inlets.

“Right or left, Trish?” I yelled. Again and again. She didn’t hear me, because naturally, FOMB was far ahead and blissful in the breeze, and at the last minute, I had to dive roll into the grass to avoid a watery finish. The entire scene still makes me laugh hysterically.

FOMB and I remain dear friends and despite the fact that she lives in CA, we see each other as often as possible. Which isn’t that often and it’s never enough, but we make it work.

I’ve thought about Trish a lot during the past few weeks because she has always approached new situations and opportunities with balls. Even if she didn’t actually feel confident inside and like any realhuman, she has struggled at times with that, you can bet that’s how she came across. Confident, brave, ballsy. “Of course I’m going to try this.”

Recently, I have lived that mantra even more than I usually do. I’ve put myself out there in the vast writing world, scared but sure. I know my voice, I know I’m capable, and I know that you never know unless you try. Or ask. Or jump in. Or, even, dive.

I’ve received some really good news and much affirmation lately, and it reminds me that although there was also rejection therein, living large is kinda what this life is about, in terms of maximizing the hell out of it. Living with enthusiasm and confidence and hard work and chance.