Living in a city like New York, I’ve grown used to being able to order practically any type of food that strikes my fancy, at any time. Since I’ve started traveling so much, my food choices have become limited, and if I crave any food that’s foreign to the land I’m visiting I have to make it myself. Because I really don’t know much of anything about preparing foreign foods (my specialty is eating them), I’ve been taking every chance I have to learn.

Recently I’ve been staying in Jakarta with friends, and we’ve been mostly eating out in fancy western restaurants, but today we ate street food. The fact that surprised me most was that satays are really Indonesian, and have just been popularized though Thai restaurants. After trying some incredible chicken satays dripping with peanut sauce, I decided to try an interesting fusion with Chicken Satay Pizza. It's amazing.

When my [Mexican] husband and I first started dating over five years ago, I was a bit nervous to try Mexican food—especially with all the jalapenos and other ingredients that I saw prepared in the food. However, one summer, our godchildren came for a visit and they taught me how to make authentic Mexican chicken enchiladas with salsa verde (green sauce).

Fall in Michigan - it's glorious! Colorful leaves, mist on the lake in the early mornings - and even rainbows, and northern lights this week. We see Canadian geese, ducks of all sorts, the great blue heron, and the eagle fishing. Leaves float by, the lilypads curl up in the cold. Frost limns the leaves at the water's edge (we really should finish raking). Here's a glimpse of our lake this week: