Getting Things Off My Chest: A Bitter Pill To Swallow: The Cost of Getting Sick

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 I was running a successful wine and food public relations agency, eating at the top restaurants and visiting the world’s great wine regions. Five years later, I came to a point where I considered applying for food stamps. My income was dried up and I was behind on my house payments. How did this happen to me? I learned I was not alone and should not be ashamed. I decided to speak out and learn more. According to a University of Michigan study  25 percent of breast cancer survivors reported financial

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Fearless Fabulous Women: Ann Ogden Gaffney: Cook for Your Life

In the early 1990s, fashion industry executive Ann Odgen Gaffney found herself cooking and caring for a designer in the industry fighting AIDS, The experience taught her to be fearless which was especially helpful when she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2001. Fortunately, Ann recovered following her surgery and her life went back to a new normal….well, sort of. A second diagnosis of unrelated breast cancer came later and was a more difficult journey with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Ann learned from this experience that cooking was solace and nutrition was essential to manage side effects from treatment and support

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Getting Things Off My Chest: No Experience Necessary

The ad announced a search for the next food and drink critic for the weekly, Time Out NY.. It stated: Here’s the deal: We’re on the hunt to crown the city’s next great food writer. You don’t have to have any professional experience as a critic—just a passion for New York City’s culinary scene and the world of eating. My professional food writer friends blanched. No professional experience necessary. On one hand, I support giving a newcomer a chance at a career. On the other, it is absurd to hire someone with no professional food writing or reviewing experience, who may have not even have restaurant

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Alana Chernila’s Homemade Kitchen Wisdom: Books By Fearless Fabulous Women

“Do Your Best, and Then Let Go” So reads one of the 13 chapters- and morsels- of kitchen wisdom in Alana Chernila‘s new cookbook, “The Homemade Kitchen.” This is a book whose message is as much about how to approach life at a slow, measured and pleasurable pace as it is about about cooking with the same intentions. “Start Where You Are.” “Feed Yourself.” “Put Your Hands in the Earth.” “Do the Work.” “Slow Down.” Alana has these phrases and others taped to her refrigerator. I do the same thing on mine with inspirational quotations such as: “Just as the

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Fearless Fabulous You! Sept. 28: Could Your Kids Make You Sick?

Recently I was at a birthday dinner where a mother shared her experience with lice. Both her sons had contracted lice at their school. I’ve heard this story from other parents whose children contract lice-or fleas-and infected the rest of the family. It made me curious: How can you keep your kids safe from germs at school?  Also, how can you keep your self free from germs that your kids bring home from school? No one can live in a bubble. I’ve invited Columbia University Medical Center Pediatric Specialist Dr. Clare Bush to join me September 28th to discuss how to keep

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Getting Intimate with Your Man’s Prostate and Why It Matters

September is National Prostate Awareness Month. Frankly, I would never have known if I did not write and report on health topics. Prostate cancer does not get the “noise” that breast cancer, or even ovarian cancer, receives. Yet, it is the most common cancer in men after skin cancer. According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, one in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer as compared to one in 8 women diagnosed with breast cancer. There are about 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer and 26,540 deaths from the disease. While prostate cancer is a serious disease,

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From Hospice to Healthy: This Former Air Force Colonel Fought Ovarian Cancer and Won

Deanna Won  is a former U.S. Air Force Colonel and physicist who specialized in electro-optics and lasers for over 26 years. She worked in space launch, missile defense, biological defense and NATO operations.  But no military training prepared her for a battle with ovarian cancer. “When I was 45 years old, I experienced excruciating pain in my abdomen and had trouble breathing, which landed me in the hospital, where even the morphine could not reduce any of my pain,” says Deanna. “When I found out that I had ovarian cancer, I made the immediate decision to completely change my nutrition and diet to an

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Are We Having Fungi Yet?

A recent walk in the woods yielded a brilliant treasure. Attached to the trunk of a dead tree was a giant mushroom. It was splashed with colors of yellow and orange and fanned out in layers resembling firm giant petals. We delicately removed it from the tree trunk and carefully carried it home.  Research on the internet and a consult with a mushroom foraging expert confirmed it was a Chicken of the Woods, considered a delicacy in the food world. After photographing our find for posterity and Instagram we sliced it into thin strips and sautéed them in olive oil

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The Theory of Relevancy

A chef whom I knew and respected died this past week at the age of 50 after a long battle with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a devastating and progressive neurodegenerative disease.  His name was Gerry Hayden, and his restaurant was the critically acclaimed North Fork Table & Inn on Long Island. I had just discussed booking a dinner at his  restaurant with my friend Kathy, and then she sent me his obituary. Gerry Hayden stood heads above many star chefs in the kitchen even though he was confined to a wheelchair. Though his arms and hands were useless for cooking, his mind

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SHARE Provides Peer Support for Women with Breast or Ovarian Cancer

Most people are aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but how many of you are also aware that September Is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month?  At the end of this article I have provided a graph to give you a brief understanding of the impact both breast and ovarian cancer have on women in the United States of all ages and backgrounds, What’s important to also understand is that if you or a loved one is diagnosed with either disease, you don’t have to feel alone. There is an amazing support network available through organizations like SHARE, a non-profit whose mission

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GTOMC: Are You Hard of Listening?

My father was deaf in his left ear, probably due to military artillery when he served in the army. He liked to call it his “Buy My! Give Me! Get Me! Ear” because he slept on the right side of my mother. My mother said my father’s real hearing problem was that he was hard of listening. He listened when it was interesting to him; otherwise he ignored the chatter. Do you know people like that? They just don’t listen, or they listen selectively. Worse these days is distracted listening. You know what I mean: People who are multi-tasking or texting and scrolling

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What’s For Dinner….Again?

When people ask me what I like to make for dinner I usually answer “Reservations.” This stems from my childhood. I had a busy mother who worked full time, earned her Masters Degree at night and volunteered for numerous civic and charitable organizations. She loved to food shop but was usually to occupied to cook. We had a lot of wasted food in our refrigerator!  Dinner was usually something rapidly prepared or heated from a bag, box or can. Dining out was where the adventure started. Mom was happy. Dad was happy. I was happy. The meals tasted different and it was a

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