This wine "holiday" has become one of the highlights of the year around our house. For me and my friends, it will be Open That Bottle Night number three, though the occasion is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. I was just slow to catch on! Open That Bottle Night [...]
"Come over for dinner tomorrow night, why don't you?" I asked a friend Friday. "Sure, sounds great. I'll bring the wine, I was recently at a tasting of Portuguese wines and have a couple of bottles to share," she tells me. Oooh. Portuguese. That sounded like fun. My plan for [...]
It must be a sign of the times (one of many) that I flipped through my morning Wall Street Journal yesterday to find an item about new advertising efforts by the Velveeta folks "designed to appeal to budget-conscious consumers." They're taking advantage of this weekend's Super Bowl snack-o-rama for some targeted (Internet-savvy [...]
I don't recall the exact moment that I was first introduced to vanilla sugar, though it certainly was in France. May have been during my study-abroad time in Dijon, seeing my host family using those little envelopes of sucre vanillé in a recipe. And it certainly came up a number [...]
A few days ago it was Just One Of Those Days. Never catching a break, feeling always behind the 8-ball, a sense that if I just grasp my head firmly enough alongside each ear I can hopefully keep my head from exploding. You know those days, right? Couldn't even muster [...]
Everyone at my Thanksgiving table this year is going to have their own wishbone to break. No, I'm not cooking up 8 turkeys just so everyone gets a wishbone. I love my family, but not quite that much. I'm looking forward to the spice-brined and grilled Cornish game hens I'll be [...]
I wrote an article about apple pie a few months back, which appears in this month's issue of Alaska Airlines Magazine. In rereading the article last week (it's always surprising how quickly I forget exactly what I wrote soon as an article is turned in...), I was reminded of having [...]
Can you believe it? Just two weeks from today is Thanksgiving. That's what I get for blinking. I just started to make up my mental menu plan for dinner here that day. And though I am a traditionalist so often when it comes to my favorite things to eat and [...]
It was just one of those nights, last night. A night to fall back on a tried-and-true friend to make dinner in a flash: a simple pork tenderloin. For this two-person household, it's just the right portion size, usually around 1 pound, 2 good servings with some possible leftovers. And [...]
Not long after I got to help toast the 21st birthday of Rover's restaurant, it was time to celebrate another birthday. My brother's. He's older than 21, that's all I'm going to say. I crafted a dinner menu around one of his favorite food groups: beer. Make that top-quality, finely [...]