As usual, I walked into the grocery store last night not sure what we'd end up having for dinner. I was thinking "pork tenderloin" but when I got to the meat & seafood department, those big, plump Dungeness crab really caught my attention. At under $5 per pound, they were [...]
At Seattle Bookfest in late October, I found myself chatting with a gentleman at the Book Club of Washington booth about their organization. "Are you a collector?" he asked me. "No, not really," I muttered. "Do you have more than 3 books at home?" Sure. Of course. Who doesn't? Is it that easy to [...]
My good friend Susan Volland pointed out a mistake in the book before it's even gone to press. Egad, the nightmare of every author. (And I'm not kidding myself that there won't be others that don't go discovered for a while”¦.) Thankfully it's a small error, more a clarification than [...]
I imagine more than a few Champagne corks will be popping over the course of this month as Seattle's beloved Dahlia Lounge restaurant celebrates its 20th anniversary. Beyond Champagne toasts, they're celebrating too with lots of fun and prizes throughout the month. Any restaurant that survives and thrives to hit [...]
'Tis the season. For a lot of things, actually. I hear talk of comfort food and big cozy sweaters, fires in the fire place and hunkering down to watch old movies and read a good book. And with all this rain, cooling temperatures, it's also the season of wild mushrooms. [...]
Ok, so where was I? Ah yes, lounging in my Victoria hotel room on a lazy Saturday. This was the view at one point in the morning, typically Victoria: incoming float plane and a Black Ball ferry heading in from Port Angeles. Outgoing whale-watching trip (that bright orange boat center) and [...]
Welcome back, Mr. Smith! I was wondering what had come of you..... About this time last year I was working on a feature article for Horizon Airlines Magazine recounting the lives and times of Northwest tea companies. It's a story impossible to tell without the name of Steven Smith coming up. [...]
I hope you read that title with an appropriately thick French accent, as I'd intended. Lay am-behr-gehr. It makes a difference. Because this isn't about the all-American hamburger we all know and love, instead a Gallic take on our Yankee icon. It really had never crossed my radar in all the [...]
Having had a fabulous trip to Vancouver, BC earlier this year, which included a cocktail or two (plus an amazing dinner) at Yew in the Four Seasons Hotel, it grabbed my attention to read about the Olympics-themed cocktails recently unveiled for the restaurant. The Games will be starting in 127 days, and [...]
Sometimes I presume that everyone does all the same little tricks in the kitchen that help make our cooking lives easier and more efficient. Like laying down a dampened paper towel under a cutting board to keep it from slipping around on the counter (though my no-skid KitchenAid cutting board makes [...]