Nothing describes Italy as well as this picture.... an INCREDIBLE bottle of wine...it kept on giving, notes of mushroom and chocolate... an incredibly simple yet elegant meal...my favorite, pear, mushroom and cheese salad tossed with a hint of aged balsamic and olio! my husband and love of my life, by my side my new baby, cooing and kicking back enjoying the view of the fig tree two of the best friends in the world, with us and enjoying great conversations about traveling the world with all of our kids (9 total!)... a view … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2009
Wedding, Love Feast style
By on March 26, 2009 with
Last Saturday, my family and I attended the wedding of our good friends Diana and Cliff. I wish all of you could've been there. It was one of the most beautiful examples of Love Feast I have ever witnessed. They live in one of the ghettos of Baltimore City. They chose to live there. When they were planning their wedding, they knew without a doubt, they wanted it to be an open invitation to all their neighbors. We all know, most weddings are events for family and friends of the bride and groom. Everyone dresses to the … [Read more...]
Cherimoyas
By on March 24, 2009 with
Honestly, I didn’t know what Cherimoyas were a week ago. The Minneapolis Tribune did a tiny “meet and greet” this fruit article. So, I thought it would be the perfect “food toy” (see our definition of a food toy at the end of this post) purchase. At $9.99 a pound, it wouldn’t be my everyday go-to fruit! But, for “the blog” I went to hunt them out. Two grocery stores later, I found them high on a shelf at Byerly’s. When I went to pay for them, nobody knew what they were and it sent managers and check- out people a flutter as to … [Read more...]
Pazo Raises the Bar
By on March 22, 2009 with
Friends of ours decided to get married...a bit on the fly. So, after we attended their spontaneous ceremony, we "flew" into action. We wanted to make their day special. I went to a favorite Baltimore spot, Pazo. I wanted to make reservations, make sure the tab was charged to me and give them a heads up that this was a special evening. Ingrid, the dining room manager, knew just what to do! She reserved a table and made a note to add on complimentary glasses of champagne. I left knowing that my friend's night was in good … [Read more...]
Tuna Noodle Casserole Revolution!
By on March 19, 2009 with
When I read the Amateur Gourmet's post on Tuna Noodle Casserole, which included a challenge to reinvent it, I thought "ick" why bother! It had been years since I had made it. I remember it being annoyingly crunchy on the side, or too sour, or too dry, or too mushy, or too tuna-y. It is not something the peaks excitement around my house as an answer to "what's for dinner?" either. A few days later I went to one of my favorite restaurants, Lucia's. Picking up something from the takeout side of Lucia's restaurant is one of … [Read more...]
Luck O’ the Irish and Green Milk!!
By on March 16, 2009 with
Every year, on March 17th, my mom would get the corn beef and potatoes boiling, the cabbage steaming and the Irish soda bread baking. She would add a bit of green food coloring to the kids milk. Not knowing a good Irish dessert, she faithfully made creme de menthe brownies. As simple as the meal was, we always looked forward to it! I wanted to share my favorite part of the meal with you guys today! Irish Soda Bread! For those of you who shy away from ever making bread, this is considered a quick bread. This bread does not … [Read more...]
Banana Bread In A Can Trick
By on March 10, 2009 with
Grandma Bessie's kitchen was always warm. I remember looking up to the white oven and being shooed away and warned of the heat as I came in through the back door. In the winter, we came in the back door because often the front porch was covered up in plastic to seal out the North Dakota cold. That back door led to what Grandma called the back porch, which was merely really a small hallway to enter the house. To the left, inside the back porch, was a small dresser, lined on top with a row of silver coffee cans filled with wax … [Read more...]
Boyz Gone Wild!!!
By on March 6, 2009 with
I was sound asleep at my sister's house. I had gone to her beach house to attend her baby shower! When my cell phone rang. Coming out of my sleepy haze, I let voice-mail pick it up. I called to retrieve the message and my neighbor was checking in to see if everything was okay. "I see the police and firetruck at your house and I just wanted to make sure everyone was alright." I jolted up in my bed, what?! Now, I knew that tonight my husband was at home, without kids (except our teenage son) or wife and had planned a "boy's … [Read more...]
Halal Lamb
By on March 4, 2009 with
About two weeks ago, my husband woke up at the crack of dawn to go with our good friend Bouchaib to a farm about an hour away. Bouchaib and Devon had been planning this trip for many weeks. Bouchaib is Muslim and he and his family go to this farm to get their halal meat. We thought halal was a religious ceremony, similar to kosher. On the drive to the farm, Devon found out from Bouchaib halal means to kill the animal yourself. So, they got to the farm and went to a pen full of lambs. They were all tagged with prices, … [Read more...]
Baked-Up From Baked
By on March 2, 2009 with
My sister-n-law, Kim, who I think will forgive me for sneaking a look into the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, that gave I her as a gift, has read the cookbook cover to cover. She also has agreed to submit to a lie detector test has agreed to an interview. Kim is in the beginning stages of launching her own baking company. Let's see where she gets her inspiration! What is your favorite food memory? Um, learning to make chocolate chip cookies in 4-H. We had to measure all the ingredients into butter dishes. That … [Read more...]
