One of my favorite memories of my mother probably isn't one she would want me sharing as often as I do, but it so perfectly sums her up that I can't help but revisit it.

In the memory, I'm about 13 years old. We're living in Destin, Florida, and we're...

I have so much to say and nothing at all to say.

I feel that, as a grief counselor, and as someone who has experienced an incredible amount of personal grief, I should have comforting words to offer, but the truth is that I do not. I have been writing...

Every day I take photos, probably several dozen. I capture little moments of my life and post them on Instagram. The bright, blue California sky. My two girls holding hands, my 3-year old in her underwear helping me make muffins. They are sweet, colorful and poignant pictures, snapped carelessly sometimes...

When I was 26 years old, two of my best friends became pregnant within a month of each other. Upon word of their news, I promptly burst into tears -- and was surprised to find that they weren't the happy kind. Instead of feeling excited for my friends, I somehow...

Greg and I got married on a hot July day on Cape Cod. Two months later, I walked into the bathroom of our Chicago apartment and took a pregnancy test.

You're not pregnant, Greg called through the door.

When I came out of the bathroom, I handed the test to...

When people ask me what I do and I reveal that I work as a grief counselor, they often recoil in horror, ushering forth a series of well-meaning exclamations.

"Oh, isn't that hard?"

"That seems so sad!"

"I couldn't do that."

The truth is that I don't find it...

He may rock a Justin Bieber haircut and have to sit through 11th grade biology class, but teen book critic Robby Auld can certainly hold his own when it comes to the book world.

In the last year he's gone from penning a blog he thought no...

I was 14 when both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer at the same time. Being an only child, the ensuing years of hospitals, surgeries and chemo treatments were lonely ones. When I look back I don't recall there being many choices about the way things unfolded.

But...

A few months ago I began seeing a shrink. I like her. She's older and British and sharp, and I like her office. I like the chairs and the light and the slanted ceiling. I see her on Friday mornings.

The subject I spent the majority of our first few...

As if it weren't already the most talked about subject in Chicago right now, chefs from across the city gave us their best attempts at street food during last Thursday's Taste of Chicago held in the Aragon Ballroom. The event benefited No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength's campaign...

Two weeks ago at the annual National Restaurant Association show I ducked into what would turn out to be one of the most popular talks of the weekend: Mobile Restaurants -- Restaurants Get Rolling: Chefs Take It to the Streets.

The room...

It was recently lobster week in Chef Frank Brunacci's kitchen.

What does that mean? Only that he featured an entire menu based around lobster for one week in May at his restaurant Sixteen, on the 16th floor of the Trump Tower in Chicago.

After cutting his...

Chef Rick Tramonto is a busy guy these days. With his latest cookbook Steak With Friends debuting, a stint on Top Chef Masters and taking care of his restaurants Tru, Tramonto's Steak & Seafood, Osteria di Tramonto and RT Sushi Bar & Lounge, he somehow managed...

Shouldering in a new restaurant in the City of Big Shoulders is never easy, but the Sandoval brothers have not only found some space on Kinzie Street for Mercadito, but they're widening their stance. (Never mind the one-star review by the Chicago Tribune, this place is bouncing and...

Last week a Chicago woman named Lauren Trost was scolded by another woman in the Lincoln Square shopping district for nursing her baby in a public place. The woman told her what she was doing was indecent and illegal. She threatened to call the police and she tried to rally...

Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard is set to open her second restaurant, The Drunken Goat, in the West Loop in January of next year. In preparation for the opening she has been hosting traveling dinner parties in secret locations around Chicago called The Wandering Goat Dinner Series.

The...

When I read Hanna Rosin's "The Case Against Breast-Feeding" article in the April issue of The Atlantic Monthly, I was well into my third trimester with my first baby. I had no plans other than to breast-feed, but reading this article gave me pause. In it, Rosin compares breast-feeding...

I recently had the chance to dine at Bonsoiree, Chef Shin Thompson's exclusive Logan Square restaurant famous for its Saturday Night Underground Dinners, an experience gained by invitation only. Born out of a series of illegally-held dinner parties in tiny Chicago apartments, which eventually led to a small, airy...

Last December, at four months pregnant, I went for my first ultrasound. While it was incredible to see the little baby inside me waving its arms about and stretching out its legs, my husband and I were shocked to also see a very large ovarian cyst looming alongside my uterus...

In August my husband and I traveled to Costa Rica for what was supposed to be one of the world's first "Carbon Neutral Vacations."

As an occasional travel writer, I've found the leaning trend towards environmentally and socially conscious travel quite impressive. From giant, all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica...