A Dream of Success, with a Side of Cheese, Grapes, and Tomatoes.

Hi everyone! I’m so glad you’re here.

Now, you may be wondering why I am here, and what Mediterranean & Me is all about.

As I write this, I’m remembering Meryl Streep in her role as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, specifically the moment when she arrived outside her Parisian home, exclaiming upon entry, “It’s Versailles!”

Every time I watch that movie (and it’s a serious feel-good movie for me, so I’ll just say I watch it often), a huge grin spreads across my face at Streep’s reaction to her new home, as well as her admiration for the food at the restaurant where she and husband, Paul (the incomparable Stanley Tucci), discussed what she would do with her time, and her confession that she loved to eat. (Tucci’s exclamation, “You’re so good at it!” has me hugging the nearest pillow, stuffie, or child every. single. time. for the amount of love and humor delivered in that line.)

And the more times I watch the film, the more I appreciate the moment when Tucci wrote a letter to an old friend, describing Streep’s easy connection with native Parisians.

The film has become more important to me in recent months, not only because of my writing and dreams of success, but because I moved to Croatia late in 2020 with my family and have fingers crossed in the deepest place of my heart, secretly hoping, praying, and stressing for success at life here.

What’s funny is, when I first envisioned writing this article and launching Mediterranean & Me, it was inching up on October 2019. The timing was particularly special to me, because October is my favorite month. I tremendously enjoy celebrating two of my beautiful children’s birthdays, thinking back on my first month of dating my husband, and Halloween.

I was so excited to add another thing to celebrate to an already wonderful month, but time got away from me, and then 2020 happened.

But with the arrival of 2021 and the move to a new country in-place, it’s more time than ever to write about food, travel, and family.

I’m doing this for those I love: for my husband, my daughter, and my two sons; I’m doing this to better understand the cultural upbringing of our family tree; and I…