In less than two weeks I’m heading to Costa Rica with five of my 10 close college friends. Eight of us took a trip to Fort Lauderdale two years ago after graduating and have wanted to explore another place together. The trip means a lot to me especially because I live so far away from my college friends, most of whom live in the Boston area.
We’re flying into San Jose and then taking a bus to Tamarindo, where one of our friends is teaching for the summer. Seeing as I’ve never been to Costa Rica before, I’m looking for recommendations of places to go, sights to see, things to do. We hope to travel outside of Tamarindo to the extent that we can and explore some less toursity areas. Any suggestions?
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Published by Mallary Tenore Tarpley
Mallary is a mom of two young kiddos -- Madelyn and Tucker.
Mallary absolutely loves being a mom and often writes about the need to find harmony when juggling motherhood and work.
Mallary is the Assistant Director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin, where she manages the Center's various programs related to distance learning, freedom of expression, and digital journalism.
Previously, she was Executive Director of Images & Voices of Hope and Managing Editor of The Poynter Institute’s media news site, Poynter.org.
Mallary grew up outside of Boston and graduated from Providence College in Rhode Island. In 2015, she received a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University.
She now lives in beautiful Austin, Texas, with her kids, husband Troy and cat Clara. She's working on a memoir, slowly but surely. You can reach her at mjtenore@gmail.com.
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Word on the Street 
Dear Mallary,
My husband recently “googled” me and your blog from June 08, regarding comments and memories found in cookbooks, came up with your mention of my first cookbook, “From Ellie’s Kitchen to Yours”. As soon as I saw your name it brought back fond memories of you and your mother, Robin, sitting very attentively in my cooking classes at Roche Bros in Millis. I believe that your Mom was already ill at the time, but I’m not sure. However, I admired the fact that she faithfully brought you to all the classes and you were always very interested and well behaved. Your Mom was a lovely woman and I was sorry to hear of her passing.
I read about you and what you are doing and thought that you might find it interesting that I have Dan Poynter’s book on self publishing and found it very helpful when publishing my second cookbook, “So Easy, So Delicious”.
I left Roche Bros more than 10 years ago and currently give private cooking classes and lessons, as well as corporate culinary seminars and team building events.
In case you are still interested in cooking you are welcome to check out my website, elliedeaner.com or my blog, elliedeaner.blogspot.com. You are also welcome to sign up for my complimentary monthly e-newsletter, which contains recipes and culinary tips.
Your upcoming vacation sounds great and I hope that you have a wonderful time time!
BTW, I’d be curios to know if you have any memories of your lessons at Roche Bros, so long ago!
Best regards,
Ellie Deaner
It’s so good to hear from you, Ellie! I’m so happy you remembered me and my mom; your note made my day. My mom loved your cooking classes. I have a copy of your first cookbook here in my kitchen. Its cover is tattered, and the pages are food-stained — reminders of weekend afternoons in the kitchen with mom.
I do have some memories from the cooking classes. I will write about them at some point in the near future. It’s so interesting to see how food plays into the memories I have of my mom.
It took me years to feel comfortable cooking. It’s still sometimes hard for me, in part because it reminds me of my mom and of something that I wish she could have taught me. As a kid, cooking wasn’t about following instructions. It was about dumping far too many white chocolate chips into bowls, forever peering into the oven window to see when the treats would be finished, and licking batter-covered spoons.
I still like doing all these things, and I still have a lot of learning to do. I’ve started trying to recreate some of the meals my Mom made. Hard as I try, though, they’re never quite the same.