Our Blog Adventure: A Sisterly Journey Through Food, Family & Reflection
Before there was the Reflection Institute, there was a blog. For over a year, we — two Irish sisters living in the U.S. — shared stories of food, family, travel, and everyday rituals that helped us pause and savor life.
It was part recipe journal, part memoir, and part love letter to slowing down. Though the blog itself is no longer live, here’s a taste of the journey that inspired what we do today.
🍋 Food as Memory & Connection
Food was our way into storytelling — each recipe carried a memory, each meal was a moment to reflect. Some topics included:
Hurry for Curry — A tribute to our mom’s Friday-night curries in Ireland, and how a childhood comfort dish has become a lifelong love.
Foodclub with Books — When we discovered that book clubs are even better when paired with restaurants, regional dishes, and wine.
You Say Tomato; I Say Tomahto — How growing our first garden turned a tomato-hater into a chutney-maker, and showed us the joy of cultivating and creating.
🍂 Seasons & Rituals
We wrote often about how food and reflection change with the seasons—and how each season invites its own pause.
Fall’ing Slowly — The dream of a perfect autumn Sunday: roast chicken, bread pudding, crunchy leaves, and a hammock with a good book.
Christmas in Chicago — Family gatherings filled with limoncello toasts, Italian feasts, and the warmth of togetherness in a wintry city.
Ebbs and Flows — A reflection on balance, from intermittent fasting to professional burnout, and learning to embrace life’s natural rhythms.
☘️ Identity & Home
Being Irish in America shaped many of our stories, often told with humor and affection.
An Irish Girl Living in America — Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day across two worlds, with crunchy biscuits on one side of the Atlantic and soft-baked cookies on the other.
A Love Affair with Limoncello — How a glass of lemony sweetness linked family dinners in Italy, celebrations in Chicago, and our own kitchens.
💛 Sisterhood & Reflection
At its heart, the blog was about connection—between food and memory, past and present, and most of all, between us as sisters.
Writing together reminded us of the importance of joy, curiosity, and reflection in everyday life. This blog adventure was our first experiment in making reflection both joyful and approachable. It planted the seeds for what would later become the Reflection Institute—a space where Pausing. On. Purpose. isn’t just something we write about, but something we invite others to practice too.
✨ Ready to dig deeper? Click HERE to explore our Blog Retrospective!