Bonni Brodnick Blog

From a seat away, it appears that these gentlemen are hard at work on their train home from NYC. "Working on the Railroad" is a new series on the Bonni Brodnick Blog. Get a ticket, grab a seat, and come along for the ride.                                                                                                                              Photo: Bonni Brodnick                                                                                       ...

I'm starting to get flashbacks from a Thanksgiving past when all hell broke loose and someone even ended up in the hospital. Lesson learned: Don't eat giblets and laugh at the same time. Click here   for my Huffington Post or read on ... I’ll never cook turkey again. It’s too stressful having one food that is the focal point of one meal. At the Thanksgiving dinner table, all eyes are on the bird and my once-per-annum self-induced culinary panic circles around whether my turkey will be judged as succulent or dry, well-glazed or burnt. Would I have calculated correctly the number of guests vs. appetite vs. leftover ratio? This year I brined the turkey the night before. When I took it out of the refrigerator on Thanksgiving morning, the salty/sweet brine had blobbed over to one side of the plastic bag, covering only half the turkey. I squished the liquid around and prayed this would work as a last-minute fix-it until my 20-something son s...

What sides are you serving, and are you brining/marinating/smoking/deep-frying/steaming/grilling/rotisserie-spinning your turkey? How is your acumen for calculating   cooking time and how do you artfully dodge the question, “Is the turkey ready yet?” when guests start getting cranky? Click here for my new Huffington Post  and get all the dish on handy tips for Turkey Day.

The best parties include great company, conversations, conviviality ... and a little synchronized water ballet in the indoor swimming pool never hurts.  Bedford Magazine left no "T's" uncrossed at their sold out "Bedford 25" event. The evening celebrated Bedford's most creative, most influential and most dedicated residents including John Farr, president of the venerable, soon-to-be reborn  Bedford Playhouse.  All proceeds from the event were donated to the Playhouse's development campaign.  The grande soirée hosted by BedMag was held in a 12,000 square-foot private house on East Field Drive in Bedford (currently on the market for a cool $5.75 million ... and represented by Ginnel Real Estate , should you need more 4-1-1 on the property). Video: Bonni Brodnick More than 200 guests enjoyed the gathering that included the aquatically amazing  New Canaan YMCA'a Aquianas synchonized swimming team.  And the food? Thanks to the generosity of  ...

My octogenarian mother, Betty Kogen, is a dynamo and a true patriot. She's 85 years old and waking up at 5 a.m. to get a ride to work at a voting poll in Westport, Conn. She'll be there ALL day until the polls close. "I love it!" she said. Betty has been committed to doing community service for more than 60 years -- she was president of the Maplewood/South Orange League of Women Voters, on the school board, head of the PTA, on the board of the Maplewood Historic Society and the New Jersey Symphony, and until recently was a hospital volunteer. She was even voted "Woman of the Year" in Maplewood!  Betty is a giver.

Click here to locate your polling place.  (Let's get this frikkin' election over with already.) 

[Reprinted by popular demand, here is my Bedford/Pound Ridge Record-Review  profile on Morris Ottman.]   Graduation diplomas have been received, mortarboards sent aloft have landed, and memories of school are put to rest at this mid-point in the summer.  For former Pound Ridger Tom Ottman, whose father, Morris Ottman, was principal at Pound Ridge Elementary School for 25 years, fond memories of the School live on 41 years later. “Growing up in the small town environment of Pound Ridge was the perfect experience for a kid who loved the outdoors,” wrote Tom Ottman. He grew up on Hack Green and Tatomuck Roads until he was 18 years old and graduated from Fox Lane High School with Class of 1979. Now living in Charlotte, N.C., with Lois, his wife of 33 years, Tom is a kidney transplant survivor and grateful to be sharing his story about his youth in a town that is often referred to as “God’s Country.” “During my father’s memorable career (1948-1973), he had great i...